


FOOD, 



INFLUENCE 



HEALTH AND DISEASE; 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT 
KINDS OF ALIMENT ON THE HUMAN BODY. 



DIETETIC RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION 
OF THE HEALTH. 



By MATTHEW TRUMAN, M.D., 

MEMBER OF SEVERAL LEARNED SOCIETIES BOTH BRITISH AND FOREIGN, 



LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

1842. 



•T* 



' K^ 




LONDON: 

Printed by William Clowes and Sons, 

Stamford Street. 



TO ANTHONY WHITE, Esq., 

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON, 
SURGEON TO THE WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, &C. &C. &C, 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE WITH GREAT PLEASURE 

INSCRIBED, 

AS A MARK OF ESTEEM, 

FOR HIGH PROFESSIONAL AND PRIVATE CHARACTER, 

BY HIS FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



u- 



PREFACE 



A great number of the diseases with which 
the human race is afflicted may be ascribed 
either to a paucity or to a superabundance of 
food. In the former case, the organs of the 
body are unable to obtain a sufficiency of ma- 
terials adapted for their preservation in a state 
of vigour ; and in the latter, disease is pro- 
duced, either because wholesome food is taken 
in too large quantities, or from the inconsiderate 
introduction into the system of many articles 
of diet which interfere with nutrition. The 
object of the following pages is not to indicate 
the manner in which a greater abundance of 
alimentary matter is to be procured, but to 
point out the importance of dietetic plans to 
those who, though fortunate enough to possess 
the means of obtaining everything requisite 
for the full development of all parts of the 



VI PREFACE. 

body, find themselves, either from the use of 
improper food or from a perseverance in habits 
of living calculated to depress the vital powers, 
surrounded with all earthly blessings except 
good health. No country in Eurppe contains 
so man}^ people in this state as our own, and it 
is to them particularly that the following pages 
are addressed, for the purpose of showing 
what extensive alterations can be produced in 
the body, merely by the adoption of different 
plans for its nutrition, which not only have 
the effect of tending to preserve the health, 
but also constitute some of the most effectual 
means that are known for preventing and 
eradicating disease. 

Matthew Truman, M.D. 

1 8, Bolton Street, Piccadilly, 
August, 1842. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface ..... 

Introduction .... 

Proximate Principles of Animal Food 

Fibrin ... 

Albumen . 

Gelatine . 

Osmazome and Mucus 

Animals taken as Food 

Birds 

Reptiles . . . . . 

Fish 

Insects . 

Milk 

Oleaginous Substances 

Cannibalism .... 

Vegetables taken as Food 

Fruits 

Nuts ..... 

Proximate Principles of Vegetable Food 



Page 

V 

1 

2 

4 

6 

7 

9 
10 
16 
18 
21 
25 
27 
38 
43 
46 
51 
54 
55 






Vlll CONTENTS. 

Gluten .... 

Mucilage . - 

Farina or Starch 

Sugar ..... 

Geophagism 

Condiments .... 

Bitters .... 

Salt .... 

Water ..... 

Spirits f ... 

Wine ..... 

Beer .... 

Effects of Fermented Liquors 

Tea 

Coffee .... 

Cookery . 

Taste .... 

Effects of Animal Food 

Effects of Vegetable Food 

Effects of Mixed Diet 

Influence of Particular Kinds of Diet 

Rules for Diet 

Prevention of Disease 

Nutrition 



FOOD. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The care usually taken of the health extends 
very little beyond trying to protect the body 
from injury by actual violence ; for people 
in general are exceedingly negligent about 
adopting plans to prevent derangement of the 
system. The majority of diseases result from 
circumstances which interfere with the nutri- 
tive processes ; and this is not extraordinary, 
when the extensive influence of the means 
necessary for effecting the developemnt of the 
body is considered. 

Food may be defined to consist of all ingesta 
taken into the body by which nutrition is 
effected or assisted. This definition, which is 
more general than any of those usually adopted, 
includes not only the alimentary substances 

B 



2 PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL FOOD. 

derived from the animal and vegetable king- 
doms, and the inanimate bodies salt and water, 
but likewise atmospheric air. 

PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL FOOD. 

To appreciate the effects of different sorts of 
aliment, some acquaintance with their chemical 
nature is requisite. A striking difference ex- 
ists for the most part in the composition of 
bodies belonging to animals and vegetables : 
those which appertain to the former class are 
ordinarily composed of four elements — oxygen, 
hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, or, in other 
words, of water, carbon, and nitrogen ; whilst 
those derived from the latter generally contain 
only three elements — oxygen, hydrogen, and 
carbon, or water and carbon. This difference 
in the number of the component elements of 
animal and vegetable bodies is not always 
found to exist : for some animal substances, as 
fat, the resin of the bile, &c, are composed of 
three elements only, like most vegetable bodies; 
and, on the other hand, some vegetable produc- 
tions, as the cerealea, &c, contain the four 



PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL FOOD. 6 

elements peculiar to the greater number of 
animal substances. 

It would be natural to infer from these 
remarks that those kinds of alimentary matter 
which are most complex, and contain the 
greatest number of elements, must afford most 
nourishment, and such will hereafter be shown 
to be the fact ; for the most nutritious kind of 
food is obtained from animal bodies, and from 
the most compound vegetable substances. The 
four elements composing animal alimentary 
substances are presented to us, as food, under 
the form of the proximate principles, fibrin, 
albumen, gelatin, osmazome, fat, and oils. 
Each of these will be examined in succession, 
for they constitute an immense variety of 
articles of diet, obtained from the following 
classes of the animal kingdom, viz. mammalia, 
birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusca, and insects, 
though it ought to be observed that the four 
first classes furnish man with a much larger 
quantity of food than the others. 



b2 



FIBRIN. 



FIBRIN. 



The muscles of animals are principally com- 
posed of this substance : its proportionate 
quantity is greatest in flesh which is dark- 
coloured, and belongs to animals that have 
attained their full growth. Its physical cha- 
racters vary in different species of animals, 
and in the same animal at different ages, on 
account of being mixed with various kinds of 
colouring matter. In beef and mutton it is of 
a full red colour ; in pigeons and many kinds 
of game it has a brownish hue ; it is pink in 
veal, salmon, pork, rabbit, chicken, and other 
kinds of poultry. In most fishes and animals 
of the lower classes which serve for food it 
is semi-transparent and colourless ; though, 
amongst all the different creatures from which 
nourishment is obtained, fibrin may be said to 
present almost every variety of colour. Fibrin 
is not only met with in the muscles of animals, 
but in many of the internal organs also, which 
it renders highly nutritious. Pure fibrin, when 
moist, is white and opaque, but in a dried state 



FIBRIN. O 

it has a dark appearance. It resists putre- 
faction for a considerable time, whilst kept in 
the air or immersed in water. On exposure 
to a high temperature it contracts and shrinks, 
and on being burnt gives out the strong odour 
of burnt horn or feathers. It is corrugated by 
boiling, and is insoluble in alcohol and cold 
water. The purest form of fibrin met with, 
under ordinary circumstances, is the fibre of 
meat which has been boiled slowly, for a con- 
siderable time, in a large quantity of water, as 
that which is obtained from meat employed 
for making bouillon or beef-tea. In this 
country meat so boiled is not generally eaten, 
because it is not considered nutritious ; but in 
France, as must be well known, it is a very 
common article of diet. No doubt it is not so 
nutritious as meat subjected to less boiling, 
and which therefore contains a greater quan- 
tity of gelatin, &c, though it does not appear 
that any direct experiments have been made, 
with the view of ascertaining the relatively 
nutritive properties of fibrin. Though so par- 
ticularly abundant in animals, fibrin cannot be 



o ALBUMEN. 

altogether regarded as a purely animal sub- 
stance, for Vauquelin and other chemists have 
detected its presence in the juice of the Papaw- 
tree, in a state resembling that in which it is 
found in the blood. 

ALBUMEN. 

Albumen exists in two states in animal sub- 
stances, uncoagulated and coagulated. Raw 
white of eggs presents the purest example of 
it in the former state, whilst cartilage, horn, 
hair, and nails, consist chiefly of it in the 
latter. It is one of the principal constituents 
of the blood, brain, and glands ; and enters 
largely into the composition of oysters, whelks, 
periwinkles, and snails. It coagulates on being 
exposed, for a few minutes, to a temperature of 
165° Fahrenheit, which causes different pro- 
cesses of cookery greatly to vary the digestible 
properties of substances containing an abun- 
dance of it. Eggs exposed to a high temper- 
ature, merely long enough to cause partial 
coagulation of the albumen, are much lighter 
and more digestible than they are after the 



GELATINE. 



application of heat to them has been continued 
to complete it, or, as it is termed, till they are 
boiled hard. The digestible qualities of oysters 
may be modified in a similar manner. In a 
raw state, or when the albumen they contain 
is uncoagulated, a great number may be eaten 
without causing any bad effects. One of the 
most distinguished French physiologists of the 
present day used to declare he did not care 
about eating oysters, unless he could be sup- 
plied with at least twelve or fourteen dozen for 
his own share ; a number he was continually 
in the habit of taking at one meal, without 
experiencing any symptoms of indigestion. 
Numerous other instances could be adduced 
of persons eating similar quantities with im- 
punity. Stewed oysters, however, in which 
the albumen is coagulated, could not, in all 
probability, be partaken of with similar free- 
dom, without causing a great derangement of 
the stomach. 

GELATINE. 

This substance is easily obtained by boiling- 
different parts of animals, for some time, in 



o GELATINE. 

water, when the gelatine they contain is rea- 
dily dissolved ; and if the decoction be slowly 
evaporated, it may be gradually reduced to a 
tremulous substance, possessing a considerable 
degree of solidity, termed jelly. The integu- 
ments, bones, cartilages, tendons, and the liga- 
ments of the joints, are the parts of animals 
which contain the greatest quantity of gelatine: 
hence the selection of the skin of the calf's 
head, leg of beef, ox-tail, and neck of mutton, 
for making soups and broths. The green fat 
of turtle, as it is called, is only part of the 
integument reduced to a state of gelatine by 
boiling. The uses of gelatine are very nume- 
rous : in the state of jelly, it is one of the most 
nourishing, useful, and agreeable sorts of food 
we possess. It constitutes the basis of all 
soups, and is also applied to a great variety of 
purposes, in the forms of glue, size, and isin- 
glass. Recent experiments in France appear 
to show that the gelatine extracted from bones 
by long boiling, when eaten alone, does not 
possess the highly nutritious properties for- 
merly supposed to belong to it. 



OSMAZOME AND MUCUS. 



OSMAZOME. 



The word osmazome is derived from the 
Greek words 007**7, smell, and ty/mos, broth, and 
has been given to a substance which pos- 
sesses remarkably sapid properties, and com- 
municates to animal substances the peculiar 
flavour called savoury. It exists in greatest 
abundance in the fibrous organs of animals ; 
but it is also found in the blood, and in the 
brain. The flesh of game and of full-grown 
animals contains the largest proportion of it. 
Vauquelin has discovered it in the mushroom, 
and Chevalier and Lessaigne assert that it ex- 
ists in some plants belonging to the family of 
the Chenopodise. 

MUCUS. 

This substance enters very largely into the 
composition of animal substances. It is found 
in the saliva nearly in a pure state, and is also 
a constituent of most of the other secretions. 
Mucus is considered to be the primary animal 
substance formed, and the matrix from which 

b3 



10 ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD, 

all the others are successively derived. It has 
therefore been regarded as the most important 
of all the proximate principles of animal 
bodies. The embryo of animals at the earliest 
periods of existence appears to be solely com- 
posed of a mass of mucus, parts of which, as 
the animal becomes developed, are gradually 
and successively converted into gelatine, albu- 
men, and fibrin. Mucus is highly nutritious, 
and easy of digestion. 

ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD. 

Animal food is eaten in the greatest quan- 
tities in cold regions ; many northern nations 
live almost entirely on it, scarcely ever par- 
taking of vegetable substances, at least during 
the greater part of the year. Some tribes of 
people feed exclusively on land animals, others 
on aquatic ones. In order that some idea may 
be formed of the variety of animals eaten, a 
short notice will be given of those which are 
most generally consumed as articles of food. 
The animals most eaten in Europe are herbi- 
vorous ; their flesh being milder, more tender, 



ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD. 1 1 

and more wholsesome, than that of carnivorous 
animals. Europeans in general obtain the 
principal part of their animal food from oxen 
and sheep, and they do not consider animals 
fit for food until they have attained a consi- 
derable degree of growth. This is not the 
case with the inhabitants of some other parts 
of the world. The Chinese eat many creatures 
during the earliest periods of their existence. 
and therefore in such an undeveloped state. 
that we should consider them loathsome. Mr. 
Holman, the blind traveller, also informs us 
that, at an entertainment given him by the 
king of the island of Fernando Po, the uterus 
of a sheep containing two lambs, each about 
six inches long, was served up as a great treat, 
the dish being first presented to him as a mark 
of respect. Though our common ruminants 
are so generally eaten, some nations are re- 
strained from feeding on them, by religious 
ordinances : thus many castes of Hindus are 
prohibited from partaking of the ox, and the 
ancient Egyptians were forbidden to eat of the 
sheep. 



12 ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD. 

Horse flesh is not an uncommon article of 
diet : in Denmark and Sweden it is said to be 
publicly exposed for sale in the markets, and 
M. Duchatelet asserts that a very large quan- 
tity is consumed as food in Paris ; the knackers 
and their families, who live principally on it, 
having a remarkably robust and healthy ap- 
pearance. Baron Larrey states that the French 
armies, during many campaigns under Napo- 
leon, were greatly indebted to horse-flesh for 
the means of subsistence. Marshal Massena, 
it seems, preferred it to most other kinds of 
meat. The Mongols, the Ton gooses, and other 
nations bordering the Great Desert, hunt the 
Dziggtai, or Tartary horse, for food, the flesh 
being considered a great delicacy. The Tar- 
tars, Arabs, and Patagonians eat the flesh of 
asses ; and the young ass was a great delicacy 
in the cookery of the ancient Romans. The 
pig, on account of its being so generally dis- 
seminated over the world, affords food to a 
vast number of the human race. Pork is one 
of the most nutritious kinds of meat we pos- 
sess ; hence the reason of its being, with such 






ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD. 13 

advantage, preserved as an article of food by 
salting. Its taste is generally esteemed ; and 
Galen says the different parts of the pig have 
as many as fifty different flavours, on which 
account he considers pork resembles human 
flesh. Dogs were formerly much eaten in 
Europe; Hippocrates, Galen, and Pliny, all 
mention their being used as food. Dogs and 
cats, according to Duchatelet, are sold for 
food in Paris, though the traffic in them is 
tolerated rather than recognised. They are 
also eaten by the Chinese, by some negro 
tribes in x4frica, by the people on the banks 
of the Missouri and Mississippi, and by the 
inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. Sir 
Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander commend 
dog's flesh as the sweetest meat they ever 
tasted, and from the following anecdote it 
would appear to be very wholesome. The 
celebrated Captain Cook, during his voyage 
round the world in 1774, was attacked at sea 
with a very severe illness, which induced 
great debility and loss of appetite. The sur- 
geon who attended him considered his reco- 



H ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD. 

very would be greatly facilitated by fresh ani- 
mal food, of which unfortunately there was 
none in the ship. His complaint at length 
became so alarming, that, as a last resource, it 
was determined to kill and dress a favourite dog 
in the vessel, belonging to a Mr. Forster, in the 
hope that it might serve as a substitute for 
the ordinary kinds of animal food, which could 
not be obtained. The dog was made into 
broth and other dishes for the captain, which 
proved highly beneficial, for they restored his 
strength and appetite so much, that in a short 
time afterwards he completely recovered. 

Goats and kids are eaten in most countries 
where they are found. Elephants are consi- 
dered delicacies in Cochin China ; and when 
the king, or any of his viceroys in the provinces, 
has one of these creatures slaughtered for table, 
pieces of it are sent round to all the neighbour- 
ing persons of rank, as marks of favour and 
attention. These animals are also eaten in 
South Africa. Camel's flesh is used as an ar- 
ticle of diet in Egypt ; the ancient Romans 
were particularly fond of the heels of this 



ANIMALS TAKEN AS FOOD. 15 

creature when young, " Cameli calcamenta te- 
nerrima." In China, rats and moles are sold 
by weight, for food, in the markets. The dead 
rats thrown overboard from the shipping at 
Whampoa are picked up by the natives and 
used as food. The Mandingoes eat moles and 
squirrels. The inhabitants on the coasts of the 
Polar Seas, the Esquimaux, Greenlanders, Lap- 
landers, Samoieds, Kamtschadales, &c, eat 
whales, walruses, seals, bears, beavers, otters, 
badgers, foxes, &c. The Normans, Flemings, 
and English are stated to have formerly prized 
as food the smaller kinds of whales met with in 
the Bay of Biscay. Whales' tongues are said to 
have ranked among the delicacies of the table 
during the middle ages. The Caffres eat lions. 
Bruce, the celebrated traveller, was, however, 
pronounced to be an impostor, because he stated, 
on his return to England, that he had eaten a 
piece of a lion in the north of Africa. The 
Bradypus melanotus is a common article of diet 
in South America, and is said to have the fla- 
vour of boiled mutton. The tapir and the ar- 
madillo are eaten by the Brazilians. The opos- 
sum is eaten in Peru and New Holland ; and 



16 



BIRDS. 



the kangaroo in Australia. Monkeys are con- 
sumed for food in different parts both of Asia 
and America. 

BIRDS. 

The common gallinaceous birds, which afford 
such an abundant supply of nutritious matter 
to the human race, are natives of India. Phea- 
sants (phasianus colchicus) are fabled to have 
been brought from Colchis, in Mingrelia (Ibe- 
ria), whence they were gradually disseminated 
over Europe. During the time of the Ptole- 
mies, these birds are said to have been so rare 
in Egypt, that some of those kings were unable 
to obtain any of them for their own eating, not- 
withstanding they offered a great price for them. 
The turkey, now so common an article of diet, 
is a native of America, or West India : hence 
its name, in French, of " dindon," or gift of 
Inde. It is found wild in Canada, Illinois, on 
the banks of the Missouri and Mississippi 
rivers, and in the north of Mexico, and was 
first brought to Europe by the Spanish Jesuits, 
in 1529. Sonnini says the first turkey that was 
eaten in France was served up at the feast 



BIRDS. 



17 



given at the nuptials of Charles IX., in 1579. 
Peculiar birds, eaten by some nations, are 
disliked by others : thus, though the common 
fowl is held in such general estimation, Mr. 
Salt mentions that several tribes of people in- 
habiting the country round the bay of Am- 
phila, in Abyssinia, have a perfect abhorrence 
of the flesh of that bird. The rook-pies eaten 
by the English yeoman would disgust a 
Frenchman, as much as the idea of eating 
frogs does most of us. Several birds were 
eaten by the ancient Romans, which are now 
excluded from European cookery. The beau- 
tiful exterior of the peacock created a desire in 
their epicures to ascertain its taste ; and accord- 
ingly it is recorded that Hortensius, the ce- 
lebrated orator, and rival of Cicero, was the 
first person in Rome who had a peacock served 
up at table ; which rarity he introduced at a 
sumptuous entertainment he gave to the col- 
lege of pontiffs. Peacock's brains also consti- 
tuted a choice dish among those people, and 
thrushes were much esteemed by them. 

The eggs of several kinds of birds are eaten 
as food, as those of the common fowl, the phea- 



18 REPTILES. 






sant, plover, pea-hen, duck, and goose. The 
Negroes, Caffres, and Hottentots eat the eggs 
of the ostrich; the South American Indians 
those of the emu ; and the New-Hollanders 
those of the cassowary. The Esquimaux, and 
other inhabitants of the polar regions, eat the 
eggs of the sea-gull, auk, and many other 
water- fowl. Eggs are generally most prized 
when new-laid, but in Cochin China putrid 
and half-hatched eggs are considered delicacies, 
and cost thirty per cent, more than fresh ones. 
The Mandingo women in Africa are prohibited 
from eating eggs, though the men eat them 
without scruple. The Chinese and Malays are 
particularly partial to the nests of swallows, 
found in many parts of the south of China, in 
Java, Sunda, and other islands in the Indian 
Archipelago : the cause of their being held in 
such estimation by these people is owing to 
their being thought to have an aphrodisiac effect. 

REPTILES. 

The animals belonging to the class Reptilia 
which afford food to man are not numerous. 
The turtle supplies a very nutritious and whole- 



REPTILES. 19 

some article of diet, and, now that the voyage 
between this country and the West Indies is 
made in such a short time by steam-boats, it 
will no doubt be imported in greater abundance, 
with much advantage to our population at 
large. Turtle was first introduced into this 
country, as an article of food, about the middle 
of the seventeenth century. The following ex- 
tract from the ' Gentleman's Magazine' for the 
year 1753 shows it was at that time considered 
a great rarity : — " Friday, August 31. A tur- 
tle weighing 350 pounds was ate at the King's 
Arms Tavern, Pall Mall ; the mouth of an oven 
was taken down to admit the part to be baked." 
The greater number of turtle consumed in Lon- 
don are brought from Jamaica, where much 
care is bestowed on breeding and preserving 
them ; they are sold in the shops in that island 
at a less cost than beef or mutton. Some of 
them are so large, that one would be a suffi- 
cient repast for a hundred persons, and admit 
of fourteen men standing with ease, at the same 
time, on its back. 

Serpents are eaten in many parts of the 



20 



REPTILES. 



world : the American Indians are very fond of 
rattlesnakes cooked as we dress eels. The ana- 
conda, and other boas, afford a wholesome diet 
to the natives of the countries they inhabit. 
Adders are stated to be used as food in many 
parts of France and Italy. Crocodiles, the 
guana, and other lizards, are eaten in South 
America and the Bahama Islands. The bull- 
frog is considered in America as good as turtle. 
The Rana esculenta, or edible frog, is a 
favourite article of diet in France, Germany, 
and Italy. Toads seem also to be eaten by the 
French, though unwittingly. Professor Du- 
meril used to relate, in his lectures at the Jar- 
din des Plantes, that the frogs brought to the 
markets in Paris are caught in the stagnant 
waters round Montmorenci, in the Bois de Vin- 
cennes, Bois de Boulogne, &c. The people em- 
ployed in this traffic separate the hind quarters 
and legs of the frog from the body, denude 
them of their skin, arrange them on skewers as 
larks are done in this country, and then bring 
them in that state to market. In seeking for 
frogs, these dealers often meet with toads, which 



FISH. 21 

they do not reject, but prepare them in the 
same way as they would frogs ; and, as it is 
impossible to determine whether the hind quar- 
ters of these creatures, after the skin is stripped 
off, belong to frogs or toads, it continually 
happens that great numbers of the supposed 
frogs sold in Paris for food are actually toads. 
The eggs of turtles, and of some of the larger 
kinds of lizards, and of crocodiles, are stated to 
be excellent food. 

FISH. 

Fish is a most important article of food, and, 
in all parts of the world, affords one of the 
principal means of subsistence to people resid- 
ing near the coasts, on the shores of lakes, or 
on the banks of rivers. The more northern 
parts of Europe, Asia, and America produce 
very few nutritious vegetables, and the inha- 
bitants of those places would die of famine, if 
they were unable to procure fish in great abun- 
dance. Fish contains large quantities of albu- 
minous and gelatinous matter, which are fre- 
quently united with a considerable portion of 
oil : though nutritive, it is light, and not stimu- 



22 



FISH. 



lating, and therefore is often of great service, as 
an article of diet, to invalids. It does not 
favour the rapid developement of the solid parts 
of the body, on which account the jockeys at 
our race-courses, during the time they are trying 
to reduce their weight, live principally on it. 

The ancient Egyptians and Syrians abstained 
altogether from fish. Pythagoras prohibited 
his disciples from eating it ; and the Greek 
heroes considered it a kind of food likely to in- 
duce effeminacy, and therefore unworthy of a 
man. The early Romans entertained similar 
opinions respecting fish, and seldom eat any ; 
though at a later period of their history it seems 
to have been a very favourite kind of food with 
them, and they partook of several kinds, as the 
dog-fish, echinus, star-fish, porpoise, &c, which 
are now seldom eaten in Europe. The Roman 
gourmands were guilty of more acts of folly and 
extravagance with respect to fish, than about 
almost any other article of food. They were 
in the habit of weighing them whilst alive at 
table ; and to watch their agonies whilst dying 
was considered a piece of great entertainment. 
They also paid great attention to breeding and 



FISH. 23 

feeding fish, and frequently paid enormous 
prices for particular kinds : thus Suetonius 
mentions thirty thousand sesterces, about 240/., 
being given for a single mullet. The labrus 
scarus, or parrot-fish, was so highly esteemed 
by them, that they named it " the brain of Ju- 
piter." Vedius Pollio frequently had culprit 
slaves thrown into his fish-ponds for the con- 
ger-eels, it being considered their flavour was 
much improved by feeding them on human 
flesh. Hortensius, the orator, is said to have 
sometimes shed tears when any of his conger- 
eels chanced to die ; and the Emperor Domi- 
tian is related to have assembled the senate 
for the purpose of consulting that august body 
as to the best manner of cooking an enormous 
turbot which had been brought to him. Juve- 
nal, in his fourth Satire, alludes to this extreme 
piece of weakness, in the following lines : — 

Atque utinam his potius nugis tota ilia dedisset 
Tempora sevitiae, claras quibus abstulit urbi 
Illustresque animas impune. 

Ah ! as this day that he had pass'd the rest, 
And his dire reign had only been a jest, 
Nor Rome her noblest blood had tamely seen 
Flow unreveng'd ! 



24 



FISH. 



In some countries fish when tainted, or 
even putrid, is preferred to that which is 
fresh. The inhabitants of the banks of the 
Senegal and Orange rivers pound some small 
fish of the size of sprats in a wooden mortar, 
as they are taken from the stream, and after- 
wards make them up into conical lumps, like 
our sugar-loaves, which they dry in the sun. 
In this state they soon become slightly de- 
composed, and give out a most unpleasant 
odour, notwithstanding which, these people 
consider them a luxury, and eat them dis- 
solved in water, mixed with kouskous. Fish 
prepared in a somewhat similar manner is 
eaten by the Indians on the banks of the 
Orinoco. Some persons who have objected 
to eating animal substances, on account of the 
abhorrence they feel at different creatures 
being deprived of their lives for the sake of 
food, have abstained entirely from fish. Frank- 
lin, who entertained this opinion at one time, 
and therefore would not eat fish, though par- 
tial to its taste, gives rather an amusing 
account, in his ' Life,' of the reasons which led 



INSECTS. 25 

him to alter it. — ■" I considered," says he, 
" the capture of any fish as a sort of murder 
committed without provocation, since these 
animals had neither done, nor were capable of 
doing, the smallest wrong that should justify 
the measure. This mode of reasoning I con- 
ceived to be unanswerable. Meanwhile, I 
had formerly been extremely fond of fish ; 
and when one of the cod was taken out of 
the frying-pan, I thought its flavour delicious. 
I hesitated some time between principle and 
inclination, till at last, recollecting that when 
the cod had been opened some small fish were 
found in its belly, I said to myself, ' If you 
eat each other, I see no reason why we may not 
eat you.' I accordingly dined on the cod with 
no small degree of pleasure, and have since 
continued to eat like the rest of mankind." 

INSECTS. 

This division of the animal kingdom fur- 
nishes the human race with a considerable 
quantity of food in many regions of the globe. 

c 



26 INSECTS. 

Humboldt says, the children in some parts of 
South America may be seen dragging enor- 
mous centipedes from their holes, and craunch- 
ing them between their teeth, without com- 
punction. The white ant is eaten by the 
Indians in Brazil, Guana, on the banks of the 
Rio Negro, and Cassiquiaire. The negroes in 
the West Indies are very partial to a cater- 
pillar found on the palm-tr^e. The CafFre 
hordes of South Africa feed upon locusts, 
ants, and a variety of insects too numerous for 
detail. Locusts and grasshoppers are eaten 
in Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Abyssinia, Mada- 
gascar, and China. The Chinese also eat the 
chrysalises of the silk-worm, the larva of the 
sphynx-moth, and a grub found at the root of 
the sugar-cane. Snails are taken as food in 
many parts of Europe. The earth-worm is 
eaten in Van Diemen's Land. The Green- 
landers, Negroes, and Chinese eat the pedi- 
culus humanus : the Javans have also been 
accused of eating these insects, but this they 
deny, though they confess to biting them. 



MILK. 27 

MILK. 

This is one of the most important articles 
of diet derived from the animal kingdom, and 
has many remarkable properties worthy of 
notice belonging to it. In the course of this 
work it will be shown that the higher orders 
of animals require a mixture of different ali- 
mentary substances for their nutrition ; for 
when they are limited to any one kind of 
food, their condition is either deteriorated, or 
disorganization of structure ensues. Milk is 
the only aliment which offers an exception 
to this rule, that is to say, which is ca- 
pable of supporting life alone. Dr. Prout 
has well remarked that all other alimentary 
matters exist for themselves, or for the use of 
the animal or vegetable of which they form a 
constituent part. Milk, however, is prepared 
by nature expressly as food, being of no other 
use to animals whatever. It would naturally 
be expected that, since milk possesses the nu- 
trient property in so eminent a degree, its 
composition must be peculiar, and contain a 

c2 



28 MILK. 

greater diversity of the principles forming ali- 
mentary matter than other kinds of food. 
Such, indeed, is the fact, for every sort of 
animal milk is composed of albumen, oil, and 
sugar, suspended in a large quantity of water. 
The proportions in which these three sub- 
stances are united, in different kinds of milk, 
vary exceedingly, but they have always been 
found to exist in the milk of all animals. 
The marked resemblance between the milk of 
different animals extends to that produced by 
the aquatic mammalia ; for Dr. Jenner and 
Mr. Ludlow, both of whom had an oppor- 
tunity of tasting the milk of a whale caught 
near Berkeley, describe it as being extremely 
rich, and having the flavour of cow's milk to 
which cream has been added. Milk is the 
earliest natural food of the young of all the 
higher orders of animals, and therefore they 
ought always to be supplied with it when pos- 
sible. Some peculiarity probably exists, at 
this early age, in the gastric juices, which 
renders them better adapted for the digestion 
of milk. This is certainly the case in many 



MILK. 29 

animals; for the gastric juice of the calf is 
much fitter for the digestion of milk, than it 
is in the same animal after it has attained the 
period of its full growth. The same modi- 
fications may probably occur to a certain ex- 
tent in the human frame, for though milk is 
easy of digestion for some children after their 
infantile state, it is too heavy and stimulating 
for a great many ; and few grown-up persons, 
in civilised life, are able to take it in any 
considerable quantity without inconvenience. 
Milk, however, is one of the chief articles of 
diet, among great numbers of the nomadic 
tribes of Asia, and other parts of the world : 
so that the difficulty of its digestion among 
us may partly be attributed to our not per- 
sisting in its use, and to the nature of our 
other kinds of food. The inhabitants of seve- 
ral immense tracts of the globe entertain a 
marked distaste for milk. The Chinese, the 
inhabitants of Java, and of the other islands 
in the Indian Archipelago, have almost as 
great an aversion to it as we should have to 
blood ; and similar objections extend also to 
cheese and butter among these people. Sir 



30 



MILK. 



George Staunton informs us, that when the 
gentlemen composing Lord Macartney's em- 
bassy to Pekin wished to be supplied with 
milk, they had great difficulty in finding a 
person who understood the management of 
cows. At last, however, a man possessing 
the requisite information was procured, and 
embarked, with two cows and the proper 
nourishment, in a barge, to accompany the 
English ambassador's yachts upon their water- 
journey. The great distaste of the Chinese 
for milk is the more extraordinary, when it 
is recollected that many of their articles of 
diet are to us of a most filthy and disgusting- 
nature. A similar dislike to it is entertained 
by some of the aboriginal inhabitants of the 
tropical regions of America, which perhaps 
may in some measure be accounted for, by 
the absence of animals which could afford a 
very abundant supply of it, before Europeans 
introduced our common ruminants into that 
part of the world. Others regard this ac- 
cordance of taste with that of the Chinese 
as an argument in favour of a tradition that 
exists, of a regular communication having 



MILK. 



31 



been formerly kept up between the inhabit- 
ants of the east of Asia and those of the north 
of Mexico. 

In the hyperborean climes milk is prized as 
an article of food by some races, whilst by 
others it is rejected. Linnaeus informs us, that 
in West Bothnia the Laplanders obtain great 
quantities of it from the rein-deer, as well as 
from their cows, and prepare it for table in 
nineteen different manners. Rein-deer milk 
is very rich, and mixed with the milk of 
cows, renders the latter much fitter for making 
cheese. The Esquimaux, on the other hand, 
seem almost to dislike the milk of the rein- 
deer, and therefore hardly ever make any use 
of it. Milk cannot be considered as quite 
exclusively an animal production, for the Palo 
da vacca, or Cow-tree, of South America, fur- 
nishes a fluid very analogous to it, in its che- 
mical, physical, and nutritious properties. 

The care that nature has taken to provide 
for the young of animals this delightful ali- 
ment, which possesses such valuable proper- 
ties, that alone it is capable of affording them 



32 



MILK. 



sufficient nourishment, during the period of 
their existence in which they are most help- 
less, ought to act upon us as a powerful in- 
centive to ensure that the young of our own 
species should never be deprived of this, to 
them, invaluable treasure ; and further, that 
they should always derive it, if possible, from 
the source which nature intended them to 
procure it from. The physiologist cannot own, 
without regret, how very commonly ladies in 
affluent circumstances neglect that most im- 
portant of their maternal duties — the nursing 
of their own children. Weakness of consti- 
tution is general^ pleaded as the reason for 
this dereliction, but the real cause is to be 
found in the disinclination of the gay mother 
to renounce the frivolities of fashionable life. 
The public voice has been loudly raised to 
induce the legislature to interpose in behalf of 
children employed in factories, to prevent 
their health from being destroyed by too long 
application to labour, at an early age; and 
recently a law has very properly been made 
to restrain all persons from disseminating by 



MILK. 



33 



inoculation that baneful disease, the small-pox. 
Perhaps it would even be still more just, if all 
women were compelled by law to nurse their 
own offspring, except when they are really un- 
able from ill health to do so. Females, in gene- 
ral, are not aware how likely they are to injure 
their own health, as well as that of their in- 
fants, by refusing to subject themselves to the 
trouble of nursing. Hundreds might have 
escaped the agonies of cancer, and of many 
other equally serious constitutional disorders, 
if they had only practised the self-denial ne- 
cessary for suckling their own children. The 
slightest reflection must convince everybody, 
that since the female of the human race is 
peculiarly organised for this important func- 
tion, any attempt to interrupt its performance 
must be prejudicial to her health. In order 
to furnish materials for the formation of the 
milk, a modification takes place, after child- 
birth, in the circulation of the blood. A large 
quantity of that fluid, instead of being em- 
ployed to supply materials for the catamenia, 
is diverted to the mammae, the vessels of 

c 3 



34 



MILK. 






which become more active and enlarged to 
receive it. The increase in the quantity of 
the circulating fluid, thus made to flow to 
the mammae, is to furnish those glands with 
the elements for forming the milk. This short 
account of the manner in which the secretion 
of the milk is effected must convince every 
one that the adoption of any plan to interrupt 
or arrest the peculiar function nature intended 
the mammae to perform at this particular 
juncture must, in all probability, be followed 
by derangement of the health. The sup- 
pression of the secretion of the milk, though 
it may be sometimes necessary, is always 
attended with danger ; for, if not followed im- 
mediately by bad consequences, it often lays 
the germ of serious maladies which become 
active in after-life. On the other hand, the 
mother who sensibly makes up her mind to 
undergo the trouble of nursing will be more 
than amply rewarded for her pains ; she will 
have the satisfaction of feeling conscious that 
she has done all in her power to preserve 
her own and her infant's health, and will 



MILK. 



35 



become the object of those affectionate and 
endearing caresses, which a child at the breast 
bestows on its nurse alone. An excessive 
exertion must be made by the system, when 
such an abundant secretion as that of the 
milk, is to be got rid of in any but the natural 
way. The correctness of this assertion is 
proved by the fact, several times observed by 
the author in his practice as an accoucheur, 
that when a new-born infant refuses to take 
the breast, or cannot extract the milk with 
sufficient rapidity, he has found large quan- 
tities of a fluid resembling it discharged with 
the urine of the mother ; showing that the 
kidneys under these circumstances have, in 
addition to their ordinary secretion, separated 
from the blood a fluid quite foreign to them. 
The human race, who, from their superior 
intelligence, can alone appreciate the effect 
such a result may have upon the health, are, 
from knowing what other nourishment to give 
in its place, the only beings able to deprive 
their offspring of their natural food ; for ani- 
mals have no means of supporting their young 
except by suckling them. In this respect, 



36 MILK. 

our knowledge is sometimes a disadvantage 
to us ; for though it gives us the power of 
weaning children whenever we please, the 
substitution of artificial for the natural food, 
at this tender age, cannot be made with im- 
punity : the consequence is, that all infants 
who are deprived too soon of the breast are 
exposed to the risk of passing their childhood 
in the misery of weakly health, brought on 
from want of proper nourishment in the first 
instance. Even savage nations, in this par- 
ticular, set their more civilized brethren an 
example worthy of imitation, almost all chil- 
dren amongst them being suckled a proper 
length of time. Some, however, go into the 
other extreme, for many Canadian savages are 
said to nurse their children till they are four, 
five, and often six or seven, years of age. In 
parts of Australia, the natives suckle their chil- 
dren till they are four and five years of age, 
though they are taught, long before they are 
weaned, to procure food for themselves. In the 
south of Italy, even, it is very common to see 
children two and three years of age taking the 
breast Ladies in this country will never be in- 



MILK. 37 

duced to take upon themselves the important 
duties of nursing more frequently than they 
do, unless convinced that by, neglecting them, 
they are likely to injure their own and their 
children's health. Fashion might prevent the 
common abandonment of this habit, though 
reason and common sense may be powerless 
in doing so. On this account, it is much to 
be regretted that an illustrious personage did 
not lately determine on nursing her infant, as 
most advantageous both to parent and child ; 
for had that been the case, her example 
would have saved many hundreds of infants 
from being consigned to the tender mercies 
of hireling nurses. An eloquent modern 
writer, in speaking on this subject, observes, 
that, if he possessed a city, he would have a 
statue of a mother suckling her infant placed 
in the centre of it, as the emblem of domestic 
happiness. Another important consequence 
of a mothers not suckling her own infant, 
is well described by Dr. Conquest, in the 
following passage extracted from his work on 
* Midwifery :' — " A very serious evil, arising 



38 OLEAGINOUS SUBSTANCES. 

from a woman's neglecting this important 
duty, is the probability of her becoming more 
frequently pregnant than the constitution of 
most females can sustain without permanent 
injury. A woman who suckles her children 
has generally an interval of a year and a half, 
or two years between each confinement, but 
she who without any adequate cause does not 
nurse, must expect to bear a child every 
twelve months, and must reconcile her mind 
to a shattered constitution, and an early old 
age." 

OLEAGINOUS SUBSTANCES. 

Fatty matter is one of the least complex of 
animal products : it has some analogy with 
most vegetable substances, being composed 
like them of only three elements — oxygen, 
hydrogen, and carbon, and probably its use 
in nutrition does to a certain extent compen- 
sate, for the want of vegetable substances as 
food. This observation is supported by the 
fact that the hyperborean nations, who con- 
sume the largest quantities of animal fat, are 



OLEAGINOUS SUBSTANCES. 39 

very often for months, and even years, un- 
able to obtain any vegetable food whatever. 
The Esquimaux, for instance, who consider 
a draught of whale-oil a luxury, live chiefly 
on blubber, which is the fat of the cetaceous 
animals; and the Russians, Cossacks, &c, 
will eat candles, soap, and tallow of every 
description. A taste for some of these arti- 
cles can be more readily acquired than might 
at first be supposed ; for patients in our hos- 
pitals, who have been treated with fish- oil 
as a remedy for rheumatism, have in a short 
time begun to like it, and to prefer that 
which is most strong and rancid. Large 
quantities of fat produce highly stimulating 
effects on the constitution, enabling the body 
to resist the influence of excessive cold to an 
extraordinary extent, which is no doubt the 
reason of its being eaten in such large quan- 
tities by the inhabitants of very high lati- 
tudes. Some of our naval officers, who have 
commanded the different expeditions to the 
polar regions, think, with apparent reason, 
that their crews would have suffered much less 



40 OLEAGINOUS SUBSTANCES. 

from the cold, if they could have lived more 
after the manner of the natives, and taken 
more largely of animal oleaginous substances 
as food. This species of nutritious matter is 
not prized by the inhabitants of cold coun- 
tries exclusively, for in South Africa the mass 
of fat forming the tail of the sheep is held 
in great estimation by the inhabitants ; and 
at Caripe, in Central America, the fat from 
the abdomen of the guacharo, a nocturnal 
frugivorous bird, is collected annually by the 
Indians, who preserve it for use as food, and 
call it butter, or oil, of the guacharo. At the 
same time, the quantity of fatty animal sub- 
stance consumed by the inhabitants of hot 
countries is very inconsiderable, compared with 
that eaten by people residing in very cold 
regions, its stimulating influence rendering it 
unfit as a principal article of food in warm 
climates. Some animal oils are much milder 
than others, this is the case with butter, or 
the oil obtained from milk. Butter is a very 
wholesome article of diet, and is of especial 
use in aiding the digestion of vegetable mat- 



OLEAGINOUS SUBSTANCES. 41 

ter, when taken in combination with it, in 
moderate quantities. Though now so com- 
mon in Europe, it was hardly known to the 
ancient Greeks and Romans, for Apicius does 
not mention it, and Galen says he saw it only 
once. The Greeks were eventually taught the 
manner of preparing it by the Thracians and 
Scythians, and the Romans by the Gauls and 
Germans. 

The inhabitants of the temperate and tro- 
pical regions of the globe consume large quan- 
tities of vegetable oils, which have quite an 
opposite effect on the body to that produced 
by animal fatty substances ; for they are cooling 
instead of stimulating, and favour the action 
of the intestinal tube, which is always of great 
importance to the health, and particularly so 
when the food consists chiefly of vegetable 
matters. The great increase in the consump- 
tion of vegetable oil in this country, during the 
last twenty years, has had a very beneficial 
effect on the health of those people who have 
acquired a taste for it; for nothing more 
readily removes the inconveniences induced by 



42 OLEAGINOUS SUBSTANCES. 

sluggish bowels than a liberal use of this de- 
lightful fluid. Yet there are many persons 
who have almost as great an aversion to olive- 
oil as they have to train-oil, a prejudice which 
they will do well to get rid of as soon as possi- 
ble. The vegetable oil taken by Europeans as 
an article of diet is principally obtained from 
the olive, but the inhabitants of other coun- 
tries partake of the oil of a great variety of 
plants, as the walnut, the hazelnut, and the 
beech. In tropical regions, the oil of different 
palms is much used. In Africa and in India, 
an oleaginous substance resembling butter is 
obtained from the Bassia butyracea, or butter- 
tree. It is stated that in China castor-oil 
is made esculent by some peculiar process. 
But of all the plants from which oleaginous 
matter is obtained for eating, the olive will, by 
degrees, become most universally, cultivated, 
because it furnishes an oil superior to all other 
kinds, both in wholesome and nutritious quali- 
ties. It is one of those important plants, the 
history of whose dissemination must be inte- 
resting to every one ; and therefore it may be 



CANNIBALISM. 43 

mentioned, that it is supposed to have been 
carried by the Phoenicians from Syria into 
Barbary; and the south of Europe. The. olive 
is indigenous to the Old World, and was first 
imported into America by Antonio de Ribera, 
who conveyed it to Peru in 1560. 

CANNIBALISM. 

Cannibalism seems to have been practised 
by different people in all ages, and at present 
is common among many barbarous nations. 
The general prevalence of this custom proves 
the correctness of an assertion made by an 
Oriental poet, " that man is more extravagant 
in his habits, and more singular in his tastes, 
than any other animal. " Human flesh is said 
to have the flavour of pork, and to be as tender 
as veal. The Cyclops, the Sestrygon, and 
Scylla, are all described by Homer as anthro- 
pophagi, or man-eaters. Circe and the Syrens 
first entrapped their victims by pleasure, and 
then devoured them. 

Diogenes, Chrysippus, Zeno, and all the 
stoics, contended it was very reasonable for 



44 



CANNIBALISM. 



men to eat one another. Livy asserts that 
Hannibal, in order to increase the hardihood 
and ferocity of his soldiers, used occasionally 
to have them fed on human flesh. However 
much such practices may shock us, they have 
occasionally been adopted, in periods of scarcity, 
and under circumstances of great excitement, 
in more modern times, by some of the most 
civilized nations on the earth. St. Jerome 
says that some of the inhabitants of Britain 
were cannibals ; and in the reign of Henry I. 
the Scots are stated to have killed and eaten 
some English, at Galloway. Schiller, in his 
* History of the Thirty Years' War,' informs 
us, that the inhabitants of Lower Saxony were 
compelled to exist partly on cannibalism, in 
consequence of the dearth of provisions, caused 
by the devastations committed by the contend- 
ing armies. The populace in Paris devoured 
the mutilated remains of the celebrated but un- 
fortunate Marechal d'Ancre, and the same class 
of people at the Hague ate the heart of their 
great countryman, De Witt. Louis XL, king 
of France, is said to huve drunk the blood of 









CANNIBALISM. 45 



children for the benefit of his health. During 
part of the thirteenth century, cannibalism was 
very generally practised by all classes of 
society in Egypt. All sorts of stratagems 
were had recourse to for the purpose of en- 
trapping people, to which physicians were par- 
ticularly exposed ; for persons pretending to be 
sick, sent for them under pretence of asking 
their advice, but really with the object of 
killing and eating them. The propensity to 
feed on human flesh has sometimes manifested 
itself in pregnant females. Prochaska relates 
an account, on the authority of Schenk, of a 
female, who was with child, being seized with 
an irresistible desire to partake of the arm of a 
baker, which she happened to see uncovered ; 
and she prevailed on her husband to induce 
the baker, for a sum of money, to let her have 
a bite at it. Another woman, in the same 
state, killed her husband for the purpose of 
eating him, and salted his body in order that 
it might remain longer fit for food. 



46 VEGETABLES TAKEN AS FOOD. 

VEGETABLES TAKEN AS FOOD. 

The vegetable substances employed as arti- 
cles of food are seeds, roots, tubers, fruits, seed- 
vessels, stalks, leaves, bark, pith, and the sap 
or juices of plants. The most civilized nations 
derive the bulk of their vegetable food from 
seeds of various kinds, and particularly from 
some of the cerealea, as wheat, rye, barley, 
and oats, and from rice, maize, and millet. 
Wheat (triticuni) is probably the most valu- 
able of all these, and has been cultivated in 
the Old World from time immemorial. At 
present its habitat is most extensive, being only 
bounded in Europe by the 70th degree of north 
latitude; in Siberia by the 60th ; in Kamtschatka 
by the 50th ; in North America, on the west 
coast by the 57th, and on the east coast by the 
52nd. It is also cultivated with the greatest 
success in middle and southern Europe, in 
middle Asia, in Arabia, Egypt, Abyssinia, 
Nubia, Barbary, in the Canary Islands, at the 
Cape of Good Hope, in the whole of the 
United States, in Cum ana, on the elevated 



VEGETABLES TAKEN AS FOOD. 47 

ranges of South America, in the Brazils, 
Buenos Ayres, Chili, Australasia, &c. Not- 
withstanding that wheat is grown in so many 
different countries, the quantity of corn pro- 
duced is only sufficient to supply a very small 
number of the inhabitants of the earth with 
the finer sorts of wheaten bread. On this 
account bread is often made of barley, potatoes, 
and oatmeal, which very frequently are mixed 
with less nutritive substances. The inhabit-; 
ants of Angermanland, in Lapland, commonly 
make bread of one part of barley and three of 
chaff, though when the former is very abun- 
dant they add only two parts of chaff to one of 
barley. In Norway, during seasons of scarcity, 
the peasants eat chaff and the inner bark of 
pine-trees, separated from the scaly cuticle, 
which are ground and baked to make them fit 
for food. The bark is collected at the time 
the sap is rising in the tree, and after exposure 
for some time to the sun, is preserved for use 
in the winter. Bread made from these sub- 
stances has a bitter taste, though it is said to 
be very nutritious. Besides the bark of the 






48 



VEGETABLES TAKEN AS FOOD. 



pine, the ligneous fibres of the beech, birch, 
elm, lime, and poplar, when ground, dried, 
and sifted, to form an impalpable powder, 
have been used as food, and found to afford 
much nourishment. These facts are rendered 
more interesting by the experiments of Auten- 
rieth of Tubingen, and others, for making 
bread of sawdust mixed with a small portion 
of flour, which, as Herschel has remarked, 
deserve a higher degree of celebrity than they 
have obtained, because they prove that absolute 
famine may be rendered next to impossible. 

Bread made of the flour of wheat is gene- 
rally esteemed, though many of the hyper- 
borean tribes of people, and some South Ame- 
rican Indians, have an aversion to it. It is 
rare, however, to meet with any one who has 
been brought up in Europe dislike it so much 
as never to eat it : yet such was the case with 
Azara, the Spanish naturalist. This celebrated 
individual ate bread till he was twenty-five 
years of age, when he left off taking it entirely, 
on account of its causing him indigestion. His 
complaint soon left him afterwards, but he 



VEGETABLES TAKEN AS FOOD. 49 

never resumed the use of this common article 
of diet: he did not substitute any particular 
kind of food for it, though he ate more vege- 
tables and fish than meat. Azara's case would 
have been invaluable to Linguet, who wrote a 
book to prove that all the physical, moral, and 
political disorders in Europe proceed from the 
cultivation of wheat, and the use of bread as 
food. 

Rye is produced in great abundance in 
the northern and temperate parts of Europe, 
Asia, and America, in New Holland and Van 
Diemen's Land. 

The several varieties of barley (hordeum) 
constitute an important article of food amongst 
the inhabitants of Siberia, Norway, Sweden, 
Scotland, and Ireland. 

Oats are also much cultivated for food, in 
the northern and temperate regions of the old 
and new world. 

The different kinds of rice (pryza sativa) are 
next in importance to those of wheat. Rice 
is indigenous to the temperate and tropical 
regions of Asia, from which it has gradually 

D 



50 VEGETABLES TAKEN AS FOOD. 

been conveyed to the North of Africa, Italy, and 
the southern provinces of the United States. 
The greatest part of the population of the globe 
subsists at present upon rice chiefly, including 
the Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Malays, Per- 
sians, Arabs, Egyptians, Turks, Negroes, &c. 

Millet seed is a common article of food 
among the Egyptians, Arabs, and Negroes. 

Maize, another highly important sort of 
grain, is by some considered indigenous to 
America, where it is cultivated as far north as 
the 46° of north latitude : it is also met with 
on some of the elevated plains in this part of 
the world, 7200 feet above the level of the sea. 
A species of maize seems to have been grown 
in ancient Egypt, seeds of which are said to 
have been often found in the catacombs. 
Wheat (triticum) appears to have been first 
found in the valley of the Jordan, on the moun- 
tains of Lebanon, and in the parts of Palestine 
and Syria near Arabia. The zodiacs of many 
nations show the particular kinds of grain 
originally most in use amongst them. The 
Egyptian zodiacs represent Ceres or Isis under 



FRUITS. 51 

the form of a female carrying an ear of corn, 
sometimes with both hands and sometimes 
with one hand only. The god of agriculture 
amongst the Chinese does not bear corn or 
barley as his emblem, and it is said no simple 
sign exists in the Chinese language to repre- 
sent either corn or barley ; whilst characters 
for both rice and millet, the sorts of grain 
particularly used by this people, are found 
in it. 

The opinion that maize is indigenous to 
America is borne out by the fact, that the 
Mexican goddess of agriculture is represented 
carrying an ear of this plant. 

FRUITS. 

Fruits consist principally of gum, sugar, 
starch, and vegetable jelly, combined with 
different acids. They contain but little nutri- 
tious matter, though, on account of their fla- 
vour and coolness, they are very agreeable to 
the palate, and therefore much prized as an 
article of diet. Their use is particularly bene- 
ficial to the health, so that it is much to be re- 

i)2 



5'2 FRUITS. 

gretted they are not grown in greater abund- 
ance. Their dissemination over different parts 
of the earth has been very slow and gradual ; 
and formerly their cultivation appears to have 
been attended to in particular places only, 
which, on this account, became celebrated for 
the peculiar sorts produced at them. Thus the 
country round the city of Apollonia or Mordia, 
in Epirus, was considered to afford the finest 
apples, and the best pears came from Crete 
and the Peloponnesus. The quince (xySwiov 
juyXov) which was consecrated to Venus, and 
the Hesperidean apples, were obtained from 
Cydon. Solon made a law which obliged the 
bride to eat a quince at her marriage feast, 
because the aroma of it was considered to com- 
municate an agreeable perfume to the breath. 
The vine is indigenous to Palestine, Armenia, 
and Georgia ; the peach to Persia ; this latter 
fruit had not long been known at Rome in 
the time of Pliny, and was then very scarce 
and dear. Lucullus brought the cherry-tree 
to Rome, after he overthrew Mithridates : 
its name, cerasus, is derived from Cerasonte 



FRUITS. 53 

In Asia Minor, to which country it is indi- 
genous. 

The fig-tree is found wild in Palestine and 
Syria, from whence it seems gradually to have 
passed to Cyprus, Crete, Rhodes, and other 
parts of Greece, and afterwards to Italy, Spain, 
France, and the south of Germany. 

The mulberry-tree was not known in Italy 
much before the time of Pliny. The orange 
and the lemon are indigenous to the south of 
Persia, East Indies, and China, from which 
parts of the world they have been transported 
into most tropical countries, and the south of 
Europe. The East Indies is also the coun- 
try of the tamarind, now grown in such abund- 
ance in the West India Islands. The pine-apple 
comes from America. The first specimens of 
this fruit introduced into Europe were brought 
from Santa Cruz, in Brazil, in 1534, and were 
presented to Ferdinand, King of Spain. Pine- 
apples have now been cultivated in the hot- 
houses of Europe for nearly two hundred 
years : they are also grown in great abundance 
on the west coast of Africa, and at the Cape 



54 NUTS. 

of Good Hope. Though they are indigenous 
to America, it is stated that they also exist 
in a wild state, in some parts of the East- 
Indies, at Celebes, in the Moluccas, Philip- 
pines, and in China. 

NUTS. 

Nuts are for the most part composed of 
farina, gum, mucus, and sugar, or of a basis 
of albumen united to a quantity of sugar and 
oil. Chestnuts form an important article of 
food in the south of Europe. Acorns are the 
principal vegetable food of the Indians in Ca- 
lifornia. The almond is indigenous to Persia : 
it has always been much esteemed, and is 
mentioned in the Old Testament. The Greeks 
are said to have procured it from Egypt, and 
attended a good deal to its cultivation. The 
almonds of Naxos and Cyprus were considered 
the best. The walnut-tree is indigenous to 
Persia, Armenia, Syria, and Palestine, and has 
lately been found in a wild state on the decli- 
vities of the Himalaya. It was not known in 
Greece at the time of Alexander the Great, 






GLUTEN. 55 

though at a later period it was introduced into 
that country from Persia. It then passed into 
Italy, and was carried by the Romans into 
Spain, France, Hungary, and Germany. The 
Pistachio-nut was known to the Greeks, and, 
in the reign of Tiberius, was brought to Rome 
from Syria. 



PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF VEGETABLE FOOD. 

The proximate principles of vegetables will 
now be examined, in the same way that those 
of animal substances have been. They consist 
of gluten, gum, or mucilage, oil, farina, or 
starch, and sugar. 

GLUTEN. 

Gluten is the most important of them all, 
because it contains most nutriment, in propor- 
tion to its bulk, and is easily digested. In its 
composition it resembles animal substances, 
for like them it contains azote. A larger 
quantity of gluten is found in wheat than in 
any other vegetable substance used as food : 
hence the nutritive qualities of bread. Gluten 



56 



GLUTEN. 



is also met with in barley, rye, beans, peas, 
chestnuts, acorns, horse-chestnuts, and in the 
juices of cabbage-leaves, cresses, scurvy-grass, 
rue, hemlock, borage, saffron, elder-berries, 
and grapes. Moist gluten swells considerably 
when suddenly dried. Dry gluten, exposed to 
heat, crackles, swells, becomes black, and ex- 
hales a fetid odour, like that given out by 
feathers or horn when burnt. By distillation 
water impregnated with ammonia, and an em- 
pyreumatic oil, are obtained from it, properties 
which point out its resemblance to animal mat- 
ter. According to Marcet it is composed of — 

Carbon . . .55*1 

Hydrogen . . . 7*8 

Azote . . . 14*5 

Oxygen . . ,22*0 

lOO'O 

The wheat of warm climates contains a larger 
proportion of gluten than that grown in cold 
ones : on this account the wheat of the south of 
Europe is best adapted for the manufacture of 
maccaroni, and other farinaceous preparations 
in which a glutinous quality is required. 



MUCILAGE. 57 



MUCILAGE. 



Mucilage, or gum. Leaves, stalks, and 
seed-vessels owe their nutritive powers chiefly 
to the mucilage they contain, which is fre- 
quently united with saccharine matter. Most 
fruits contain a basis of mucilage, or farina, 
combined with sugar or oil. The former ge- 
nerally predominates in the pulpy fruits, with 
the exception of the olive : such fruits also 
generally contain a quantity of acid, in addi- 
tion to their other ingredients. 

Gum is a product of a great number of 
vegetables, particularly of the acacia mimosa, 
and of the cherry-tree. It is very nutritious, 
and is a common article of food among the 
Moors of Libya and Senegal. 

FARINA, OR STARCH. 

Farina, or starch, is the next most important 
nutritive vegetable principle, and abounds in 
most kinds of grain, and many other parts of 
vegetables. It is found in wheat, rice, barley, 
maize, millet, &c. Common starch may be 

d3 



58 



FARINA, OR STARCH. 



procured by making the flour of wheat into 
a paste, which must be held under a stream 
of water, and continually kneaded until the 
water runs from it colourless. The flour bv 
this process is divided into two distinct 
parts, a tough substance of a dirty white co- 
lour, which is gluten, and a white powder : 
this is at first held in suspension by the water 
the paste was kneaded with, but is soon depo- 
sited, and is the starch. The facility with 
which starch may be separated from vegetable 
substances is of great importance, for other- 
wise many exceedingly valuable articles of 
food could not be obtained at all. Arrow-root is 
the starch of the Maranta Arundinacea. Sago 
is starch extracted from several species of 
palms in the Moluccas, Philippines, and other 
East India Islands. Salop is another starch, 
which comes originally from Persia, and is 
prepared from the roots of different species of 
orchis, as the morio mascula, bifolia pyrami- 
dalis. Sowans is a starch prepared from the 
husks of oats. Starch is often combined with 
poisonous substances, and many anxious mo- 



FARINA, OR STARCH. 59 

thers will be surprised to hear that the mild, 
bland, demulcent Tapioca is obtained from 
the root of the jatropha manihot, a plant in- 
digenous to the Brazils, Guiana, and the West 
India Islands, which is one of the most active 
poisons known, causing death in a few minutes 
after it has been swallowed. The roots of 
this plant, which contain a great quantity of 
sap, are peeled and subjected to pressure in 
bags made of rushes. The juice thus forced 
out is so deadly a poison, that it is employed 
by the Indians as a poison for their arrows. 
On being allowed to stand, however, it soon 
deposits a white starch, which, when properly 
washed, is quite innocent. This starch is then 
dried in smoke, and afterwards passed through 
a sieve, and is the substance from which ta- 
pioca and the cassava bread of the Indians is 
prepared. The discovery of the process for 
separating this powder from the jatropha ma- 
nihot has been of the greatest importance to 
the human race, since it enables us to obtain 
a most valuable article of food from a plant 
that is of a highly, poisonous nature, but 



60 SUGAR. 

which contains an enormous quantity of nu- 
tritious matter ; for it is asserted that one acre 
of manihot will afford nourishment for more 
persons than six acres of wheat. The manihot 
was carried by the Portuguese from America 
into Africa, where it now constitutes a common 
article of food, The potato is another vege- 
table, containing a great abundance of starch, 
for which we are also indebted to America, 
from whence it has been carried to nearly all 
parts of the world. Italy was the first place 
to which it was brought in Europe, being 
introduced there from Peru by the Spaniards, 
about the middle of the sixteenth century. 
Raleigh and Drake also brought it from Vir- 
ginia, to England, about 1586. 

SUGAR. 

Sugar is a common ingredient in vegetable 
substances, particularly in those used as food. 
It is found in the greatest abundance, com- 
bined with mucilage, in the juice of the sugar- 
cane, the acer saccharin um or maple-tree, the 
manna-ash tree, and of beet-root. It is pro- 



SUGAR. 61 

duced by most plants during their inflorescence, 
for nearly all flowers furnish honey to the bee, 
and it is a principal element in all the acerb, 
subacid, and sweet fruits. Many insects col- 
lect it : honey is gathered by the bee ; a spe- 
cies of locust in New Holland covers the trees 
and ground with a kind of sugar, and the com- 
mon aphis furnishes a saccharine secretion much 
sought for by the ant. A substance having a 
strong analogy to sugar is found in the bile of 
all animals. Sugar exists in animal milk, and 
considerable quantities are obtained in Swit- 
zerland from the milk of goats. It is also oc- 
casionally produced by morbid action of the 
kidneys, in the disease termed diabetes. 

Sugar is a very wholesome and useful article 
of diet : its nutritious properties are well exem- 
plified by the following curious case detailed 
by Dr. Copland. He states " that a lady about 
the middle age consulted him for great and 
increasing corpulency. Her countenance was 
full, clear, and florid ; her pulse strong ; her 
health excellent ; and her strength very con- 
siderable. She partook of animal food only 



62 SUGAR. 

once a day, and then in a very small quantity. 
She never took suppers, and was very moderate 
in the use of liquids. She had always taken 
considerable exercise on foot, and even up to 
the period at which he saw her, she resorted to 
it as much as the great bulk of her body would 
permit. The secret, however, of her increas- 
ing obesity was disclosed, when she mentioned 
her insatiable desire for refined sugar, which 
she almost hourly made use of, frequently to 
the extent of one pound weight daily. She 
considered it her chief article of diet : she 
reckoned the average quantity she used at 
three-quarters of a pound in the day. Tea or 
coffee was taken by her sweetened in the usual 
way. She ate the sugar in the solid state, and 
unaccompanied by any other article of diet ; 
the finest sort only was relished. Her digestive 
functions were in a perfect condition ; neither 
cardialgia, flatulence, nor acidity was com- 
plained of. Her teeth were sound. She found 
her corpulence supervene to a spare habit of 
body, some time after the practice of eating 
sugar was acquired. She thought that her 



SUGAR. 63 

obesity increased with the quantity of sugar 
which she consumed. The habit had become 
so confirmed at the time Dr. Copland saw her, 
that she conceived it to be quite impossible to 
relinquish it." After this statement few per- 
sons will deny that sugar is nutritious. The 
negroes in our plantations all get fat when the 
cane becomes ripe enough to eat, of which they 
consume large quantities. 

Sugar is esteemed by almost all people, ex- 
cept those who live principally on animal food, 
for Captain Lyon mentions that the Esqui- 
maux manifested extreme disgust at the taste 
of the sugar, sweetmeats, and gingerbread 
which were given to them. Sugar is supposed 
by many to be injurious to the teeth; but this 
is not the case, except when eaten in such ex- 
cess as to cause indigestion. It is antiseptic, 
and preserves vegetable and animal substances 
from putrefaction ; accordingly, it is often used 
for making conserves, and as an aid in curing 
salted provisions. The sugar of the sugar-cane 
was unknown in Europe before the conquests 
of Alexander the Great. The Venetian mer- 



64 - GEOPHAGISM. 

chants, during the time of the Crusades, im- 
ported large quantities of it into Italy, though 
even then it was so scarce as to be employed 
for medicinal purposes only. The use of sugar 
has gradually become more general, since the 
discovery of America, and the introduction of 
the sugar-cane into that part of the world for 
cultivation ; though, notwithstanding the enor- 
mous quantities imported from tropical cli- 
mates, and manufactured from beet-root, it is 
calculated that four-fifths of the population of 
Europe never taste it at all. 

GEOPHAGISM. 

Among the variety of substances taken as 
food some nations eat quantities of earth. The 
Otomacs live almost wholly on it for months 
together, in the years when provisions are 
scarce, and are so fond of it that they continue 
to eat it when well supplied with food. The 
negroes of Guinea, the Javanese, the New Ca- 
ledonians, and many South American tribes, 
eat clay as a luxury, and the Guajeroes, on the 
west of the Rio de la Hache, carry a little box 



GEOPHAGISM. 



65 



of lime with them, as sailors do a tobacco-box. 
The German workmen at the mountain of 
Kiff honser are stated to spread clay instead of 
butter on their bread : they call it stein-butter, 
and find it satisfies their hunger like other food, 
and is very easy of digestion. Dr. Russell, in 
his ' Natural History of Aleppo,' mentions that 
a kind of fuller's earth, called by loon, is brought 
to that city in great quantities, and carried 
about on asses to be sold in the streets. This 
earth is mixed with dried rose-leaves, and made 
up into balls : it is principally used in the bag- 
nio, by way of soap for cleansing the hair, but 
a great quantity is eaten by pregnant women 
and sickly girls. The inhabitants of Capua 
are related to have formerly paid a tribute to 
the Neapolitans for a kind of earth called leu- 
cogseum, which they made use of in the pre- 
paration of a dish named alica. The banks of 
the Mackenzie River, a few miles above the 
Bear Lake, contain layers of a kind of unctuous 
mud, which the Indians in that neighbourhood 
eat occasionally during seasons of scarcity, 
and also take it even at other times for an 



66 GEOPHAGISM. 

amusement. It is said to have a milky taste, 
and that the flavour is by no means unpleasant. 
An earthy substance found on the banks of the 
river Kamen-da-Maslo is eaten in various ways 
both by the Russians and the Tongousi. It is 
of a yellowish colour, and not unpleasant in 
taste, though it is pernicious to the health, pro- 
ducing various disorders, as the gravel, &c. In 
India lime is commonly eaten with the betel-leaf. 

Granivorous birds require to be supplied 
with a quantity of earthy matter, and have the 
faculty of distinguishing one kind of earth from 
another. They all swallow great quantities of 
siliceous stones, the noise of which, grinding 
one on the other in the gizzard, may be dis- 
tinctly heard by placing the ear against the 
chest of a common fowl. Birds also swallow 
large quantities of lime, probably to obtain 
matter for the formation of the shells of their 
eggs. 

All edible earths most likely contain portions 
of organic matter, which is the reason of their 
being taken as food. Such, at all events, has 
been found by Professor Retzius to be the case 



GEOPHAGISM. 67 

with the bergmehl, or flour of the mountain, 
at Degerfors, on the frontiers of Lapland, which 
is eaten in times of scarcity by the inhabitants, 
made into bread with the flour of corn, and of 
the bark of trees. According to Retzius, it 
contains the remains of nineteen different forms 
of infusoria with siliceous carapaxes, several of 
which are similar to those belonging to some 
of the animalculse met with in a living state 
near Berlin. The earth-worm swallows large 
quantities of moist earth, which always has 
minute particles of animal and vegetable sub- 
stances mixed with it, and this small quantity 
of nutriment is sufficient for the subsistence of 
this creature. Many marine animals, echino- 
dermata, fish, &c, seem to feed almost exclu- 
sively on sand, but then that sand abounds in 
fragments of shells, which have been reduced 
to powder by the rolling of the waves on the 
shore. All these facts show how parsimonious 
Nature appears to be of organic matter, since 
such great care is taken that none of it shall 
be wasted. 



68 



CONDIMENTS. 



CONDIMENTS. 

Man, in order to vary the flavour of his 
food, or merely to gratify his sense of taste, 
often partakes of what are called condiments, 
which consist chiefly of spices, bitters, and 
salts. Some of these substances are eaten 
alone, and possess important properties which 
influence nutrition, whilst others are mixed 
with almost every variety of food, and do not 
possess any nutritious properties at all. The 
selection of condiments frequently depends 
upon caprice, for the taste of many of these 
substances is at first found disagreeable. Bit- 
ters, tobacco, garlic, assafcetida, olives, &c, 
are generally disliked when first eaten, though 
by continued use a relish is gained for them. 
On the other hand, the frequent repetition 
of flavours which are originally grateful often 
causes satiety, or even disgust : thus sub- 
stances which merely possess sweetness are 
very apt to cloy. 

Spices are eaten in the greatest quantities 
by the inhabitants of hot countries : they are 









CONDIMENTS. 69 

most useful in promoting the digestion of 
vegetable food, and they act as powerful pre- 
ventives to the increase of intestinal worms, 
to which they are poisonous. It is interesting 
to find that the plants which produce some 
of the hottest spices, as the different kinds of 
capsicum, grow in a natural state on the mar- 
gins of the rice-grounds of India. It seems 
as if nature had been careful to furnish a 
liberal supply of them, in those situations 
where they are most required; for the rice- 
diet of the Hindoo would soon prove preju- 
dicial, if persisted in without an admixture of 
spice. Almost every hot country has its pe- 
culiar spice. Black and white pepper come 
from Malabar; cardamoms from the East 
Indies ; nutmegs and cloves from the Mo- 
luccas ; cinnamon from Ceylon ; pimento from 
South America and the West India Islands; 
ginger from the East Indies ; and vanilla from 
South America. Spices are relished by almost 
all nations. Pepper was a favourite ingre- 
dient of Roman cookery: it used to sell in 
ancient Rome for fifteen denarii, or ten shil- 



70 CONDIMENTS. 

lings a pound. The ransom paid to Alaric 
to raise the siege of Rome consisted of five 
thousand pounds of gold, four thousand robes 
of silk, three thousand pieces of scarlet cloth, 
and of three thousand pounds weight of pep- 
per. Many animals and birds, inhabitants of 
hot countries, partake of different kinds of 
spice, particularly during the wet and more 
unhealthy seasons of the year. The stimu- 
lating effect of spice is most useful in tropical 
countries, where it produces sufficient excite- 
ment in the body to enable it better to resist 
the septic and depressing influences to which 
the inhabitants of warm and moist climates 
are exposed. The effect it has on the system 
is somewhat analogous to that produced by 
alcoholic liquors, for which, in hot climates, 
it may to a certain extent be regarded as the 
natural substitute. Persons accustomed to 
the constant use of spices eat them in large 
quantities: a curry seasoned to an Indian 
palate will generally prove much too hot to 
please that of a European. Few dishes are 
fitter for many dyspeptic stomachs than cur- 



BITTERS. 71 

ries, moderately seasoned. The spices they 
contain communicate a most beneficial sti- 
mulus to the digestive organs, which fre- 
quently causes them to perform their functions 
in a healthy manner when nothing else will. 
Curry is likewise very serviceable to persons 
troubled with habitual costiveness, and often 
causes the bowels to act spontaneously. Upon 
the whole it is one of the most useful dishes 
in the hands of the dietician with which we 
are acquainted. 

BITTERS. 

Bitters may be considered to constitute an- 
other class of condiments. They are seldom 
taken alone, except medicinally, but are found 
to exist more or less in almost all kinds of 
vegetable food, which would be unwholesome 
to man and animals without the bitter extract 
it contains. Bitters act particularly on the 
stomach : they increase its digestive powers, 
and improve the appetite : they are also very 
destructive to the different kinds of worms 
found in the digestive tube, being some of the 



72 SALT. 

most active anthelmintic remedies known. 
They are poisonous to many other kinds of 
insects, on which account the secretion of the 
auditory glands most effectually deters insects 
from intruding into the external orifices of 
the ears. Bitters are so mild in their ope- 
ration, that they can be administered with 
advantage to persons of almost all ages. Their 
beneficial influence on the digestive organs 
has led to their introduction with the greatest 
advantage into many beverages, as hops in 
beer and ale. Some animals derive the greater 
part of their sustenance from food containing 
abundance of bitter extract, as the rein-deer, 
which feeds on the lichen moss. This moss 
is very useful to invalids, and constitutes a 
mild and slightly stimulating article of diet, 
well adapted to weakly constitutions. 

salt. 

Salt is a very important article of diet. 
The higher orders of animals have a great 
relish for it ; and indeed it seems to be a na- 
tural stimulus to the digestive organs of all 



SALT. 73 

warm-blooded animals. Oxen, sheep, goats, 
deer, antelopes, &c, partake very liberally of 
it. Many beasts of prey which inhabit the 
central parts of Africa and America travel 
immense distances for the purpose of visiting 
the salt-pans which are occasionally met with 
in the interior of those vast continents. Some 
of these pans have been discovered by fol- 
lowing the tracks of their footsteps. In Ame- 
rica there are many salt-springs, called ' licks,' 
which are greatly resorted to by all sorts of 
animals. It is rather extraordinary, but it 
may be affirmed with tolerable certainty, that 
the superior animals of a former creation, 
many of which have become extinct, were as 
fond of salt as an article of diet, as those now 
inhabiting the surface of the earth. At a salt 
spring in the county of Boone, in the state of 
Kentucky, on the south-east of the Ohio, an 
immense number of fossil bones of the mas- 
todon, mammoth, &c. have been found, in 
consequence of which it has been named Big 
Bone Lick. The animals to which these 
bones belonged were most probably attracted 

E 



74 SALT. 

to the spring to lick the salt; and as great 
numbers of wild creatures of all descriptions 
necessarily met at this spot, no doubt many 
deadly combats ensued between them, which 
will account for the quantity of bones found at 
this place. In the arrangement of the strata 
of the globe, Nature has ensured living beings 
a most liberal supply of salt ; for, independ- 
ently of our being able to obtain it in almost 
unlimited quantities on the coasts from sea 
water, in inland countries it is found in a 
mineral state in the bowels of the earth. 
Rock-salt, and salt springs are stated to be 
most frequently met with in strata of the red 
sandstone formation, though the salt-mines 
of Wielezka and Sicily are in the tertiary, and 
those of Cardona in the cretaceous formations : 
in the Tyrol some are in the oolitic ; and near 
Durham salt springs exist in the coal for- 
mation. 

Almost all persons find salt agreeable to the 
palate, though some have a dislike to it : absti- 
nence from it is very injurious to the health, 
indeed a certain portion seems absolutely ne- 



SALT. 75 

cessary for healthy nutrition ; for it enters 
largely into the composition of nearly all the 
fluids of the body, and a large quantity is 
thrown off by many of the secretions, which 
waste must be supplied. Particular care should 
be taken to prevent children eating their food 
without salt. An intimate friend of the au- 
thor's, who was much devoted to literary pur- 
suits, left off eating salt with his meals, and 
consequently became troubled with imperfect 
digestion, and great derangement of the health. 
He was recommended to resume the use of 
this substance : by degrees, though not with- 
out difficulty, he overcame the aversion he had 
taken to it, and in a short time afterwards 
his health was re-established. The salutary 
influence of salt is also to be attributed to its 
imparting savouriness to our food, exciting the 
flow of the saliva, the gastric juice, bile, pan- 
creatic juice, and secretion from the glands of 
the lining membrane of the intestinal tube. It 
has likewise an aperient effect on the bowels, 
from increasing the vermiform action of their 
muscular coat. Salt is a powerful anthelmin- 

e2 



76 



SALT. 



tic. Almost all persons who abstain from it 
are troubled with worms. The criminals in 
Holland, who were formerly fed on bread 
without any salt, were dreadful victims to 
these parasitic creatures. Salt is very dear in 
the Mauritius, on which account the negroes 
get very little of it, and are terribly infested 
with worms. Bread is much more wholesome 
and digestible when it contains salt : the 
bakers are sometimes, but without reason, ac- 
cused of committing a fraud by putting salt 
into their bread. The quantity generally used 
is a pound of salt to a bushel of flour, at which 
rate every adult consumes about two ounces of 
salt a week, or six pounds and a half a year, 
in bread only. The dearness of salt some 
vears back, in consequence of the heavy duty, 
made it impossible for the poorer classes to 
obtain a sufficient quantity of it. The inha- 
bitants of many parts of the coast, where fish is 
very abundant, were therefore often obliged to 
eat it without salt, which proved very inju- 
rious to their health. This useful substance 
is now much cheaper, because the tax on it 









WATER. 77 

has been remitted. It is the part of a wise 
and enlightened legislature to relieve all com- 
modities which are necessary for preserving the 
health of the people from every kind of fiscal 
burden. In Manding, and some parts of the 
interior of Africa, salt is so scarce, and is con- 
sidered so great a luxury, that all persons who 
can obtain enough of it to eat regularly with 
their meals every day are reckoned very rich. 
In the market at Boori salt is bartered for 
gold, and children are to be seen sucking a 
piece of salt, as they would sugar in Europe. 
The longing for salt, particularly after a con- 
tinued use of vegetable food, is said to be ex- 
tremely painful. Alexander Selkirk, the hero 
of Robinson Crusoe, mentions how much he 
suffered from the want of salt and bread, until 
he had acquired the habit of relishing his meat 
without either. 

WATER. 

Water is an important article of diet, being 
the chief drink of all animals : it is also ab- 
sorbed by plants. Water is the basis of all 



78 WATER. 

other drinks, and is the principal potation in 
use ; for notwithstanding that beer, wine, &c. 
are common beverages in many countries, 
nine-tenths of the human race are content with 
pure water only. In several islands between 
the tropics, particularly in the Pacific Ocean, 
water is stated to be so scarce, that the inha- 
bitants are obliged to supply its place, in great 
measure, with the milk of the cocoa-nut. In 
the Brazils, West Indies, Arabia, East Indies, 
and other tropical regions, many plants, as 
Pitas, Cardas, Bromelias, Caraguatas, are 
found, which afford a liberal supply of water 
when it cannot be obtained from any other 
source. These vegetables all contain a con- 
siderable quantity of this fluid, as clear as 
crystal, either in the stem, or in cavities and 
reservoirs formed by the leaves, which, being 
sheltered in this manner from the sun, is kept 
delightfully cool, and often affords the ex- 
hausted traveller, in hot climates, the means 
of quenching his thirst, when, but for these 
singular plants, he might be unable to obtain 
any water at all. Hoffman considered water 



WATER. 79 

to be an universal medicine, capable of allevi- 
ating or curing all disorders. It is certain that, 
in the most dangerous diseases, the stomach 
will bear water, when it rejects all other 
liquids. The pleasantest water to drink is 
that which contains a great quantity of air, 
which renders it light and sparkling. Boiling 
deprives water of the air it contains, and this 
is the reason that water which has been boiled 
tastes vapid. Boiled water, however, recovers 
its natural taste after it has been allowed to 
remain some time in contact with the atmo- 
sphere, a portion of which it soon absorbs. 
The Roman epicures preferred water that 
had been boiled, after which it was mixed with 
snow : it was sold prepared in this manner, 
under the name of decocta, in houses of public 
entertainment in ancient Rome. Juvenal and 
Martial inform us that this luxury, which was 
borrowed from the Greeks, was much in use 
at Rome in their time. The Romans were 
also in the habit of drinking hot water at their 
repasts ; the continued use of which rendered 



80 



WATER. 



the complexion pale and sickly, and weakened 
the stomach. 

" Et potet calidam, qui mihi livet, aquam." 

Martial, vi. Epigr. 86. 
Persons of rank in China seldom drink water 
without its being distilled ; and every Chinese 
infuses tea, or some other vegetable supposed 
to possess properties beneficial to the health, 
in the water which he uses. Water is almost 
the sole beverage taken by the inhabitants of 
Java; and among people of condition in that 
island it is invariably prepared by boiling, 
and usually drunk warm. Rain-water tastes 
vapid, from the same cause which renders 
spring- water flat and insipid after boiling, for 
rain-water results from evaporation, by which 
it is almost entirely deprived of air. Water is 
so indispensable to organized beings, that they 
could not exist without it. Life, indeed, can 
be supported longer without food than with- 
out drink. Some physiologists consider it pos- 
sesses nutritious properties ; an opinion ren- 
dered more probable, since the researches 



WATER. 



81 



made with the microscope have shown it to 
contain a living world of its own, in the form of 
animalculse. Fordyce informs us he confined 
some fish in a vase of distilled water, where 
they lived for fifteen months, without any 
other food, for the vessel was covered in such 
a manner, that no dust or nutritious matter 
could possibly fall into the water contained in 
it. Water is the principal agent of vegetation, 
and even the source of life in some animals, 
as in fish, for it is the medium through which 
these creatures derive oxygen for the arterial- 
ization of their blood. The necessity of water 
to life in all organized beings, and the influ- 
ence it has upon the development both of vege- 
tables and animals, great luxuriance of vege- 
tation being dependent on an abundant supply 
of moisture, and the largest animals being 
aquatic, no doubt led to the adoption of the 
opinion that water was the great productive 
element, from which all things are capable of 
being formed, and into which they were finally 
resolved. The " apicrrov p.ev vScop " of the poet — 
" water is the noblest " — is probably an expres- 

e3 



82 WATER. 

sion of this doctrine, which the Greeks re- 
ceived from the Egyptians, and which the 
alchemists of more modern times revived. 

Water, when drank, immediately modifies 
our thirst, which is a sensation felt in the 
mucous membrane of the mouth, pharynx, and 
digestive canal. Thirst results from the con- 
tinued loss of fluids which the body incurs by 
the discharge of the secretions, and exhalations, 
and by perspiration. If a fresh supply of fluid 
were not introduced into the body, death would 
ensue. No sensation is more gratifying than 
that which follows the satisfying our thirst, and 
no fluids produce this effect so well as water, 
and the fluids of which it forms the principal 
basis. Drink, after entering the stomach and 
intestines, is absorbed by the mesenteric veins 
and chiliferous vessels, by which it is con- 
veyed to the blood, which it dilutes. The 
course taken by fluids introduced into the 
stomach explains, as Dr. Paris very properly 
remarks, the advantage of taking some beve- 
rage, as tea or coffee, four or five hours after 
dinner. By that time digestion is completed, 



WATER. 



83 



and the essences of the food are beginning to 
be poured by the absorbent vessels into the 
blood, which may therefore require dilution. 
Large quantities of drink during dinner should 
be avoided, because they are likely to weaken 
the digestive powers of the stomach by caus- 
ing its distension, and, by diluting the gastric 
juices, diminish their solvent powers. Persons 
troubled with bad digestion frequently find it 
much improved by abstaining from all drink 
during dinner, and only taking a small quan- 
tity at its termination. 

In proper quantities, water and other drinks 
not only aid digestion by their power of soften- 
ing and dissolving the food, but they likewise 
perform a most important part in many other 
functions, as absorption, secretion, and nutri- 
tion. Water also enables us to take food in a 
liquid form, which is often of great consequnce 
in disease : hence our decoctions, gruels, broths, 
soups, &c. It is, however, proper to mention 
that such food taken alone, on account of its 
fluid state, does not remain long enough in the 
stomach to be digested. Soups, though made 



84 WATER. 

very strong, are not nutritious when taken by 
themselves : they should be eaten with solid 
substances, as bread, rice, maccaroni, &c, by 
which they are imbibed, as by a sponge, and 
thus retained in the stomach long enough for 
the gastric juices to act upon them, or, in other 
words, to digest them. 

The inhabitants of hot climates are gene- 
rally supposed, though erroneously, to drink a 
greater quantity of water than those of cold 
ones. People living in the temperate parts of 
the earth certainly drink less than the resi- 
dents of the tropics ; but the inhabitants of the 
hyperborean regions consume a much larger 
quantity of water than those of the hottest 
countries. Captain Lyon mentions that the 
Esquimaux drink water in enormous quan- 
tities, by gallons at a time, and two quarts at 
a draught : he considers this large supply of 
liquid is probably necessary to dissolve their 
gross food. Water is a scarce article with these 
people in winter, because during that season 
they can only obtain it from snow artificially 
dissolved. This is the reason the Tchuktchi, 



WATER. 85 

and other inhabitants of high latitudes, when 
no fuel can be obtained, have recourse to very 
filthy and disgusting means for melting the 
snow, in order to procure water to drink. 

Drink passes with great rapidity from the 
stomach to the circulating system, by which it 
is conveyed with the blood to all parts of the 
body : it is afterwards very soon got rid of by 
exhalation, perspiration, and the action of the 
kidneys : on which account large quantities of 
fluid can be introduced into the body with com- 
parative impunity. It is difficult to say, with ac- 
curacy, what amount of drink can be taken in a 
period of a few hours without great inconveni- 
ence. Boerhaave mentions a man who drank ten 
pints of wine daily ; and Haller gives instances 
of patients taking two hundred ounces of mi- 
neral waters in a few hoars. The history of 
the sot of Syracuse, who could drink wine dur- 
ing the whole time required to hatch eggs, is 
well known. The abuse of too great a quantity 
of drink, whether of a stimulating nature or 
not, is highly prejudicial to the health, inducing 
flaccidity of the solids, and often producing a 



86 SPIRITS. 






tendency to dropsical deposition. People in 
general drink a great deal more than is neces- 
sary, and indeed, upon the whole, commit 
greater excesses in drinking than in eating; 
though it is much more common to hear the 
latter condemned than the former, except when 
fermented liquors are taken. The weak, irri- 
table state of body induced by drinking too 
large quantities of tea ought not to be referred 
solely to the tea, but partly to the effect 
the quantity of hot water introduced into the 
body has upon the system, by attenuating the 
fibrinous portion of the blood. 

SPIRITS. 

The art of separating spirits from fermented 
liquors appears to have been first discovered 
in the East. The ancient Greeks and Romans 
were both ignorant of it, and Europeans only 
acquired a knowledge of it from the Arabs, 
about the twelfth century. In the fourteenth 
century the Modenese are stated to have used 
alcohol brought from the south of Germany, 
as a preservative against the plague and other 



SPIRITS. 87 

contagious disorders ; but the manner in which 
it was prepared was kept secret. By degrees 
it got into general request, in consequence of 
the extravagant praises bestowed on it by phy- 
sicians for its extraordinary medicinal qualities. 
From being first taken as a medicine, alcohol 
was soon used as a cordial, and various at- 
tempts were made to render its taste more 
agreeable. The Italians were most successful 
in improving its flavour, by the addition of 
spices, sugar, &c, and invented the prepara- 
tions named liquori or liqueurs ; which were 
introduced to public notice at the fetes given 
on the occasion of the marriage of Henry II. 
with Catherine of Medicis, in the year 1533, 
after which they soon became generally fashion- 
able in France. 

Rum is a spirit obtained from the fermented 
juice of the sugar-cane ; and arrack is distilled 
from rice. The nomadic Tartar races, as 
the Kirghises, Bashkirs, and Kalmucks, procure 
a spirit named aracu, or arraca, from sour 
milk. 



88 



WINE. 



WINE. 



The invention of wine is hidden in the dark- 
est obscurity : it is prepared from the juices of 
many fruits containing saccharine matter. The 
vine seems to have been first cultivated for the 
purpose of making wine in the warm countries 
of Asia. It is indigenous to the Holy Land. 
Noah found it in the land of Canaan, as is 
shown by the twentieth and twenty-first verses 
of the ninth chapter of Genesis : — " And Noah 
became a husbandman, and planted a vine- 
yard ; and he drank of the wine, and was 
drunken." The Phoenicians introduced the 
vine into Greece, from whence it passed into 
Italy ; and the Romans carried it into France, 
Switzerland, and Germany, where it was 
planted on the banks of the Moselle, Maese, 
Rhine, Neckars, and Donau. In ancient times, 
wine was so rare in Europe, that it was seldom 
used except at the sacrifices to the gods. It 
is curious to see how many different nations 
have prided themselves on being able to resist 
the intoxicating properties of wine. Darius, 



WINE. 89 

the son of Hystaspes, caused it to be recorded 
in his epitaph, that, among the other valuable 
qualifications he possessed, he could bear more 
wine than any of his subjects. When Cyrus 
was preparing to attack his brother Arta- 
xerxes, king of Persia, he published a manifesto 
stating he was more worthy of the throne 
than his brother, because he could swallow 
more wine. Before the Romans became de- 
generate, the young men under thirty years of 
age, and the women all their lifetime, were 
prohibited from drinking wine, except at a few 
religious ceremonies. The custom among these 
people of saluting female relations originated, 
it is supposed, from the desire to ascertain if 
they had been drinking wine. These restric- 
tions were gradually removed as luxurious 
habits became more general. The Romans, in 
drinking the health of one another, made use 
of the toasts "Bene mihi," " Benevobis." They 
also frequently took as many cups, "cyathi," 
as letters in the names of the persons they 
drank to, or as they wished years to them, on 
which occasions they were said " ad numerum 



90 



BEER. 



bibere." They also had a favourite custom of 
drinking three cyathi in honour of the Graces, 
and nine in honour of the Muses. 

BEER. 

Beer seems to have been in use almost as 
long as wine. It is commonly used in those 
countries to the north of Europe, the climate 
of which is too cold for the growth of the vine. 
Its invention is very old, though more modern 
than that of wine. Herodotus informs us the 
Egyptians drank beer, the discovery of which 
they ascribed to Osiris. Beer was also a 
favourite beverage of the ancient Scythians, 
Germans, and Gauls. 

EFFECTS OF FERMENTED LIQUORS. 

The precise manner in which spirits act on 
the system is not known, but the following 
observations prove that they have a direct 
influence on the blood and nervous system. 
An ounce of alcohol injected into the vein of 
the leg of a middling-sized dog communicates 
in a few seconds the odour of spirit to the air 



EFFECTS OF FERMENTED LIQUORS. 91 

forced from the chest during expiration. An 
animal treated in this manner falls down in 
a state of insensibility; respiration becomes 
quickened and stertorous, and the action of 
the heart is accelerated. After about ten 
minutes respiration ceases, and death ensues. 
The examination of the body shows the blood 
in both sides of the heart dark-coloured, par- 
tially coagulated, and giving out a strong 
odour of alcohol : the brain and spinal cord 
also smell strongly of alcohol. The fluid in 
the brain and spinal cord of the human body, 
in cases of death from intoxication, has been 
found highly charged with spirit. Sir A. 
Carlisle has stated, that in a case of a female 
who died from the effects of intoxication, in 
the Westminster Hospital, the fluid in the 
ventricles of * the brain had a strong odour of 
gin; and Ogston mentions that, in several 
similar cases which came under his notice, 
the fluid in the brain and spinal marrow pos- 
sessed all the physical and chemical properties 
of diluted spirit of wine. 

These are the most palpable effects of spi- 



92 



EFFECTS OF FERMENTED LIQUORS. 



rituous liquors on the human body, and are 
sufficient to prove how injurious they must 
be to the health. The presence of spirit in 
such large quantities in the principal nervous 
centres explains why its continued abuse 
usually causes disorganization and derange- 
ment of those structures. Insanity and other 
nervous affections are more frequently pro- 
duced by drunkenness in this country than by 
any other cause. Nervous disorders, particu- 
larly epilepsy, induced by excess in spirituous 
liquors, are mostly incurable. Affections of 
the heart, liver, gout, stone in the bladder, and 
gravel, are a few of the other ordinary results 
of hard drinking. Nothing can place the ex- 
citing influence of spirits on the system in a 
stronger point of view, than the fact that sailors, 
and other persons, when in a complete state of 
inebriation, frequently pass the night on the 
pavement of the streets, in the depth of winter, 
without being affected by the cold. The effects 
of spirits are somewhat analogous to those of 
many fevers, in which cold ablution of the 
whole body is often extremely serviceable, 



EFFECTS OF FERMENTED LIQUORS. 93 

though the adoption of such a plan of treat- 
ment on a person in good health, and who was 
unaccustomed to it, would most commonly 
cause a severe illness. There can be little 
doubt the human race, up to the present time, 
has been more injured than benefited by the 
discovery of alcoholic liquors. All persons 
should avoid taking them as much as possible, 
particularly those who are engaged in pursuits 
requiring much mental exertion. On the 
other hand, in cases of weakness and disease, 
where stimulants are necessary, alcoholic 
liquors are extremely beneficial, and therefore 
their use ought not, as the teetotalers pretend, 
to be entirely renounced. In many fevers, 
and in great depression of the powers of the 
system, they are extremely useful. Very fre- 
quently a delicate female, who is attacked with 
haemorrhage after her confinement, and who 
has been quite unaccustomed to the use of 
alcohol in any shape, will take a whole bottle 
of brandy in a very short time, without ex- 
periencing the slightest inconvenience from 
it ; but on the contrary, she will find herself 
greatly invigorated, though without this stimu- 



94 TEA. 

lus she would most likely have died from ex- 
haustion. 

TEA. 

Europeans first became acquainted with 
tea in their travels to China, during the six- 
teenth century. The Dutch imported some into 
Holland at the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, at which time it could usually be pro- 
cured at the druggists' shops of Amsterdam. 
Lords Arlington and Ossory introduced it into 
England from Holland in 1666. Its cost at 
this time in London was 30s. a pound. Since 
that period the demand for tea has gradually 
increased, and its price has considerably dimi- 
nished. Tea is of great importance in dietetics. 
It has tended greatly to lessen the consump- 
tion of ardent spirits and fermented liquors, 
and has therefore conferred a great benefit on 
those nations amongst whom it is much used. 
The infusion, taken moderately strong, excites 
the nervous system slightly, without causing 
violent stimulating effects, or producing any 
unpleasant sensation afterwards. It thus af- 
fords us one of the most salubrious methods 



TEA. 95 

of diluting the aqueous particles of the blood 
with which we are acquainted. Tea may be 
drank in all diseases, and is so congenial to 
the palate and stomach, that it rarely ex- 
cites vomiting, for very frequently it will be 
retained in the stomach, when labouring under 
such extreme irritability as to reject all other 
fluids, except water. In China, the infusion 
is drank alone ; in Europe, milk and sugar are 
usually added to it ; and in some parts of the 
north of Asia salt is mixed with it. In both 
Americas, in New Holland, and in the South 
Sea Islands, infusions of the leaves of several 
trees peculiar to those countries are in com- 
mon use among the inhabitants as substitutes 
for tea, though their qualities do not appear 
to have been sufficiently relished by travellers 
to lead to their being imported into Europe, 
except as matters of curiosity. Tea drank 
in immoderate quantities causes nervous ir- 
ritability ; but this effect, as has been previ- 
ously observed, should not be attributed 
solely to the tea, but partly to the influence 
large quantities of hot water have on the 



96 COFFEE. 

nerves of the stomach, and in attenuating the 
fluids of the body. Tea being unknown to 
the ancients, it is frequently said that many 
modern disorders have been produced by its 
use. Probably persons who take it to great 
excess, and who are in a peculiar state of 
health, may be injured by it. At the same 
time, tea taken in moderate quantities, as a 
substitute for more stimulating drinks, is far 
more likely to preserve the health than destroy 
it ; and the general use now made of it by 
some of the most civilized nations of the world, 
so far from being likely to do them injury, 
is on the contrary highly beneficial, and tends 
to relieve them from a great variety of inflam- 
matory disorders. Tea is also eminently 
diuretic, and therefore materially assists the 
skin and kidneys in the performance of their 
functions. 

COFFEE. 

The use of coffee is as general as that of 
tea. The infusion, when strong, has a more 
stimulating effect than tea, and therefore ought 
not to be taken too liberally. The English, 



COFFEE. 97 

when they first visit the Continent, are apt to 
drink the strong coffee which is presented to 
them as copiously as they have taken tea at 
home ; and, consequently, they find it does not 
agree with them, but produces dryness of the 
skin, and other feverish sensations. This 
would not be the case if they limited them- 
selves to the " petite tasse." The stimulating 
effect coffee produces on the brain is very 
striking : hence it is often drank by authors 
who "waste the midnight oil," to prevent 
drowsiness, and therefore it has been termed 
by the French " liqueur spirituelle." Coffee 
was first introduced into London in the time 
of Charles II., in 1652 : it was originally pre- 
pared and sold there by a Greek. No coffee- 
houses existed in Constantinople before 1544. 
Mourad II., during one part of his reign, 
caused them all to be shut up, and forbade the 
use of coffee, because some devout Mussulman 
considered its use contrary to the law of the 
Koran, and declared that the faces of those 
who drank it would be found, when they rose 
at the day of judgment, to have turned black. 




98 COOKERY. 

Coffee has been of quite as much service as tea 
in diminishing the consumption of fermented 
liquors ; and, on account of its greater cheap- 
ness, daily contributes more extensively to the 
accomplishment of that desirable end. 

COOKERY. 

Independently of the great variety of food 
that exists, its condition is very much modified, 
among most nations, by subjecting it to differ- 
ent kinds of preparation. Few articles of diet 
are eaten, by civilized nations, before they are 
either roasted, boiled, broiled, stewed, baked, 
fried, steamed, salted, or smoked. The art of 
cookery consists in a knowledge of the manner 
of conducting these processes, and is a kind of 
information which has more influence on the 
well-being of the human race than is generally 
imagined. The most important changes pro- 
duced in the food by cookery are, the destruc- 
tion of its vitality, an indispensable condition 
for its digestion; the coagulation of the albu- 
men, and the liquefaction of the gelatine, osma- 
zome, and adipose matter. These alterations, 






COOKERY. * 99 

which render it more tender, sapid, and juicy, 
are mostly produced by exposure to a high 
temperature; and, therefore, the observation 
made by Evenus, that fire is the best sauce in 
the world, is perfectly correct. Cookery has 
chiefly been made use of to gratify the palate, 
and it is almost a matter of chance that it has 
ever been beneficial to the health. This is much 
to be regretted, because many of the changes 
produced by it are chemical, and, if properly 
understood, might no doubt be conducted in a 
manner that would materially aid digestion : 
as it is, generally speaking, they are far more 
likely to impede it. 

However much the art of preparing food for 
daily use may be looked upon as an ignoble 
occupation, it is really a branch of organic 
chemistry ; and as our knowledge in this de- 
partment of science increases, the rationale of 
the modifications effected in food by different 
culinary processes will, by degrees, be ex- 
plained, so that they may be conducted upon 
proper principles. There is no occasion for an 
ordinary cook to possess all the qualifications 

f 2 



100 COOKERY. 

mentioned by Athenseus, and be a mathema- 
tician, a theoretical musician, and a natural 
philosopher, &c, (to which Dr. Kitchener has 
added, that he should possess a good temper,) 
any more than that the conductor of a loco- 
motive steam-engine should be a Watt ; but it 
will require the united talents of several great 
chemists to explain the best manner in which 
cookery is to be conducted. The only essential 
now required to be imparted to our food is, 
that it shall be palatable — the wholesomeness 
or unwholesomeness of it being rarely inquired 
into. In former times, probably, this w^as not 
so much the case, for the greatest men of anti- 
quity are frequently described as being en- 
gaged in cooking their own food ; most likely 
to ensure its being prepared in the fittest way, 
according to the notions then entertained, for 
preserving the health. Homer's heroes seem 
often to have dressed, and even killed, their 
own victuals. It is mentioned in the Odyssey, 
that when Achilles entertained Priam he 
slaughtered a snow-white sheep, which he de- 
livered to his two friends to skin and dress; 



COOKERY. 



101 






and, after it was cooked, he divided it himself 
among his guests. Many of the most illustri- 
ous generals and magistrates among the Ro- 
mans, during the earlier periods of their his- 
tory, as Curius, &c, also frequently cooked 
their own dinners, serving them up in the 
plainest manner. Most of our knowledge of 
Roman cookery has been derived from the 
writings of Apicius. There were three persons 
of this name, all famous for being bons-vivans, 
and for their skill in cookery. The first lived 
in the time of Sylla ; the second in the time of 
Augustus and of Tiberius; and the third in 
the time of Trajan. The second, however, was 
the most celebrated for his skill in the gastro- 
nomic art ; being mentioned, on this account, 
by Seneca, Pliny, Juvenal, and Martial. Athe- 
neeus also speaks of the enormous sums he ex- 
pended to gratify his gluttony, and informs 
us he was the inventor of several new dishes, 
and some cakes, which were named after him. 
Seneca, who was his cotemporary, says that he 
kept a school of cookery and good eating, in 
which he squandered away so much money, 



102 COOKERY. 

that he became deeply involved in debt ; and 
being obliged, in consequence, to look into the 
state of his affairs, he found, after satisfying his 
creditors, he should only have about 80,000/. 
remaining ; and as he considered it would be 
complete starvation to try and live upon so 
small a sum as that, he destroyed himself by 
poison. 

Pliny often mentions the ragouts invented 
by Apicius, whom he calls " Nepotum om- 
nium altissimus gurges." The cookery of the 
Romans was probably more refined than our 
own, for, it is stated, they frequently regaled 
themselves with the flesh of hawks and young 
asses; to make which tender and palatable 
must have required some skill and care. Their 
cooks were so dexterous, they could serve up a 
pig or boar, broiled on one side, and roasted on 
the other. Another favourite way of dressing 
a boar was that of stuffing it with thrushes, 
larks, beccaficoes, &c, the whole being steeped 
in the choicest wines and the richest gravies. 
This was named the Trojan manner, (in allu- 
sion to the Trojan horse, which was filled with 



COOKERY. 103 

warriors,) and was so expensive, that at one 
period it was prohibited by a sumptuary law. 
Any uncommon dish was introduced into the 
banqueting room with music, generally to 
the sound of the flute ; and the servants were 
crowned with flowers. Not only was every 
contrivance had recourse to for the gratification 
of the palate, but the pleasures of the table 
were enhanced by rendering everything acces- 
sory to eating, as complete as possible. The 
greatest attention was paid to the manner of 
carving ; and schools were established, at which 
professors gave instructions to the children of 
the wealthy patrician families, on the most 
elegant way of cutting up the different joints, 
birds, fish, &c. in most repute, by means of 
wooden models made on purpose. 

Juvenal, in his Eleventh Satire, mentions a 
person named Trypherus, "discipulus Trypheri 
doctoris," who had acquired great repute for his 
skill in carving, which art he taught publicly 
in a school. He had models of all kinds of 
provisions for a feast, made in wood, on which 
his scholars exercised themselves with blunt 



104 COOKERY. 

knives and forks, and made so much noise with 
their cutting and slashing, that it used to be 
heard on the other side of the street : " Et tota 
sonat ulmea ccena suburra." Besides the 
Apicii, Lucullus, Hortensius, Trimalcion, Fa- 
bius Gurges, Messalinus, and Cotta have ac- 
quired a sort of immortality by their extreme 
gluttony ; though their feasts were nothing in 
comparison to those given by Marc Antony, 
Vitellius, Caligula, Domitian, Commodus, and 
Heliogabalus. Lucullus went to the greatest 
expense in his dinners when alone, because 
then he said that " Lucullus dined with Lu- 
cullus." 

Cleopatra is stated to have laid Marc Antony 
a wager that she would give him a feast that 
should cost more than 40,000/., which he con- 
sidered to be impossible. During the ban- 
quet she took one of the magnificent pearl-ear- 
rings she wore, each of which, on account of 
its size and beauty, was unique, and considered 
to be worth a small kingdom, threw it into a 
small vessel of vinegar, and, as soon as it was 
dissolved, drank it off; upon which Marc An- 



COOKERY. 105 

tony immediately admitted he was the loser. 
The feasts of Heliogabalus appear to have been 
on quite as extravagant a scale as this, the ex- 
pence of each usually exceeding 40,000/. Some 
single dishes cost 5000/. a piece. This is not 
so extraordinary when their composition is 
considered, for many of them contained from 
five to six hundred brains of ostriches, or an 
enormous number of the tongues of parrots 
and nightingales. The lanx, or scutella, a large 
platter covered with different kinds of meat 
called Mazonomum, was commonly introduced 
at the Roman feasts. 

Vitellius had an immense dish of this de- 
scription made, which he named the Shield of 
Minerva : it used to be filled with an incre- 
dible variety of the rarest and nicest kinds of 
meat. This emperor was in the habit of 
taking breakfast, dinner, and supper at dif- 
ferent people's houses on the same day, on 
each of which occasions it never cost his en- 
tertainers less than 400,000 sesterces, or about 
3229/. 35. id. a. piece. It is calculated that 
in one year he wasted, in this manner, 

f3 



106 COOKERY. 

7,265,6251. In modern times, though extra- 
vagance in eating is very great, it has never 
amounted to anything like this. The chief 
cause of the entertainments of the Romans 
costing so much proceeded from so many of 
their dishes being composed of the tongues, 
brains, and other small parts of animals, great 
numbers of which required to be killed be- 
fore a sufficient quantity of material to make 
a dish of any size could be procured. Our 
dishes, on the contrary, being chiefly com- 
posed of the larger parts of animals, are ne- 
cessarily less costly. According to the no- 
tions of the present day, the Duke of New- 
castle, who used to have thirty or forty legs 
of mutton cut up, to get a sufficient number of 
pope's eyes to make one dish, was guilty of 
unwarrantable extravagance. In our feasts 
the decorative part, when carried to an ex- 
treme degree, and the wines, generally cost 
more than the materials composing the dishes. 
The Romans paid great sums for cooks, who 
were slaves ; and, if they became much cele- 
brated in their vocation, always fetched a high 



COOKERY. 107 

price in the market. In modern times the 
professors of cookery are liberally rewarded 
for their services. The principal cook at one 
of the most celebrated club-houses in London 
is stated, at one time, to have had a salary of 
1500/. per annum — a much larger stipend 
than is enjoyed by any Professor at either of 
the Universities, and far exceeding the value of 
the greater number of church livings. Many 
cooks in the families of our aristocracy have 
300/. per annum, exclusive of perquisites. The 
culinary art in this country, therefore, cannot 
be said to want patronage. 

Since cookery has been principally had re- 
course to for the object of gratifying the taste, 
it might be concluded that it is of no other use. 
Indeed many are of opinion that food is not 
actually rendered more digestible by being 
cooked, and that it is merely the habit of eat- 
ing it dressed which causes it to excite disgust 
in a raw state. Cookery, however, does render 
food easier of digestion, when properly con- 
ducted. The effects produced by it are par- 
ticularly seen in instances where articles of 



103 COOKERY. 

diet are eaten raw and cooked alternately. Al- 
most every one is aware that eggs when raw 
are laxative, but when boiled hard they are apt 
to produce costiveness. Many plants belong- 
ing to the genus Solanum, as the love-apple 
(Solanum Lycopersicum), or tomato, the egg 
plant, or aubergine (Solanum Melongena), 
eaten in France, are injurious or almost poi- 
sonous when eaten raw, though by boiling, 
stewing, or frying their deleterious qualities 
become corrected. The Solanum Tuberosum, 
or common potato, is very unwholesome when 
eaten raw. The nutritious properties of all 
vegetables abounding in fsecula are greatly 
increased by cookery ; probably because the 
application of heat causes the grains of the 
faeculent mass to burst, which enables the 
juices of the stomach to act on them more 
easily. Cookery in many instances is import- 
ant, on account of its exerting a preservative 
influence on food. In tropical climates the 
flesh of animals killed in the morning would 
be in a state of putrefaction before dinner-time 
the same day, unless it were partially dressed, 



COOKERY. 109 

and even then it is difficult to preserve it. 
Many substances not ordinarily eaten, on ac- 
count of the small quantity of nutriment they 
contain, are rendered much fitter for food by 
cookery : thus sawdust can by baking, and 
boiling, be reduced to an amylaceous pulp, 
capable of being made into bread, which has 
been found nutritious. These instances are 
sufficient to prove that the process of cookery 
is much more important than is generally con- 
sidered ; for by it the properties of alimentary 
matter are greatly modified, and therefore the 
health of individuals is, in a great measure, 
dependent on the manner in which their food 
is prepared. 

Cold is also employed, as well as heat, for 
preserving food. Fish, packed in ice, can be 
sent considerable distances without losing its 
freshness. Ice, and more particularly snow, 
are used in warm climates for cooling the or- 
dinary drinks. Great quantities of snow are 
consumed for this purpose in the south of 
Italy ; and so indispensable is it considered by 
the inhabitants of Naples to their enjoyment, 



110 COOKERY. 

that the author has frequently heard it stated, 
during his residence in that city, that nothing 
would be more likely to cause a popular com- 
motion than any attempt by the government 
to increase the tax upon snow, which is already 
very heavy. Ice and snow were in much re- 
quest among the ancients; Seneca mentions 
they were preserved in wells for use in the 
summer. The introduction of the ice-creams, 
and water-ices, now sold by the pastrycooks, 
did not, however, take place till the beginning 
of the seventeenth century, when they were 
first invented in France by a person named 
Procope Couteaux, and afterwards much im- 
proved by Le Fevre and Foi, two French con- 
fectioners. The invention of Messrs. Appert 
and Donkin, for preserving food by enclosing 
it in tin-cases, from which the air is exhausted, 
has in a great measure superseded the em- 
ployment of ice for this purpose. This is one 
of the most important applications of science 
to the culinary art which has been made in 
modern times ; for there appears to be hardly 
any limit to the length of time food may be 



COOKERY. 1 1 1 

kept from decomposition in this manner. Sir 
John Ross, in his account of his second voyage 
to the Arctic regions, states that he and his 
companions dined on Christmas-day, 1831, on 
a round of beef, some veal and vegetables, all 
in perfect condition, which had been left, with 
other stores belonging to the ' Fury,' in those 
high latitudes in 1823; and that other por- 
tions of this preserved food,, which he brought 
back to England in 1835, that is eleven years 
after they were prepared, were just as good 
then, as when they first went out of the hands 
of the maker. This discovery, and the sub- 
sequent improvements which have been made 
in it, will be of the greatest importance to the 
health ; not only because it affords the mariner 
the means of procuring fresh provisions during 
the whole of the longest voyages, and thereby 
mainly contributes to rescue him from the 
frightful maladies to which, formerly, he ine- 
vitably became a victim, when the only ani- 
mal food he could get for months was salted 
beef and pork ; but, as its application becomes 
more general, it will secure a greater variety 



112 COOKER V. 

and abundance of food for all people. Many 
articles of diet, which, on account of their ten- 
dency to rapid decomposition, can only be 
kept fresh in a natural state for a very short 
period, may, after being prepared by this pro- 
cess, be transmitted from one hemisphere of 
the globe to the other, in the highest state of 
preservation. In South America thousands of 
oxen are slaughtered merely for the sake of 
the hides, the carcasses being left to rot on 
the ground as useless. Now that the prohibi- 
tion on the importation of meat has been 
removed, a great quantity of this valuable 
food, which was previously wasted, will no 
doubt be cured by the new process, and sent 
to this country, with the greatest advantage to 
the inhabitants in general. It will likewise 
enable us to obtain a regular supply, through- 
out the year, of fruits and vegetables, at a much 
cheaper rate than by preserving them either in 
sugar, or pickling them in vinegar. Though 
the means of preserving food have been much 
perfected in modern times, it is probable some 
plan for this purpose was known to the an- 



TASTE. 113 

cient Greeks and Romans, who are stated to 
have been in the habit of conveying different 
articles of diet, as oysters, &c, to great dis- 
tances in a fresh state. The principle of the 
modern process is, as has been previously men- 
tioned, that of excluding the air from the 
vessel in which the material to be preserved 
is encased ; and when this is done effectually, 
many facts exist to prove the astonishing 
length of time animal and vegetable sub- 
stances may be kept from decomposition. For 
instance, in 1826, some bottles containing 
olives and oil were dug out of the ruins of 
Pompeii ; and though the oil was rancid, the 
olives, as far as their form and colour were con- 
cerned, were nearly perfect, having been thus 
preserved for a period of about 1500 years. 

TASTE. 

Notwithstanding the enormous number of 
articles of food by which the taste can be gra- 
tified, man varies their flavour to an almost 
infinite extent by the different combinations 
he makes of them in cookery. This has been 



114 



TASTE. 



done in all ages, and the gratification derived 
from eating seems always to have been one of 
the chief motives for human exertion. The 
citizens of London have often been ridiculed, 
because many of their most important com- 
mercial transactions have either commenced, or 
terminated, with a banquet. This custom is 
not peculiar to the inhabitants of this country, 
but is more or less common to all people, 
ancient as well as modern. To feast any one, 
amongst the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, 
was considered an act of the highest respect. 
Joseph, when prime minister, to confer a 
greater honour on Benjamin than his bre- 
thren, had him served with a five-fold mess ; 
and a double portion was always allotted to 
the heroes at the feasts of the Greeks. Alex- 
ander the Great, before he set out on his expe- 
dition to Babylon, offered a public sacrifice to 
Hercules at Tyre, and at the same time gave 
a feast to his whole army. Agamemnon is 
described, in the ninth book of Homer's * Iliad,' 
as calling a council at night in his tent. The 
parties assembled have supper before they 



TASTE. 115 

commence business, when they determine on 
sending an embassy to Achilles. The ambas- 
sadors, Ulysses and Diomed, have supper again 
with Achilles, which consisted chiefly of pork 
griskins. Achilles rejects Agamemnon's offer, 
and Ulysses and Diomed set out the same 
night on their expedition to the Trojan camp, 
from which they returned before clay, when 
they had a third supper. Animals continually 
risk their lives, and make the most extraor- 
dinary exertions to gratify their desire for 
food. Hunger has very properly been said to 
break through stone walls. It predominates 
so much over reason and moral feeling, that 
Cardinal de Retz warns politicians never to 
risk a motion in a popular assembly, however 
wise or just it may be, immediately before 
dinner. The violence of the propensity to 
procure food has been made subservient by 
nature to cause the removal of dead organised 
substances, which would otherwise soon be- 
come putrid, and, by evolving infectious mias- 
mata, cause disease. Crows, vultures, cranes, 
&c, are highly esteemed in hot countries, on 



116 TASTE. 

account of the important service tliey render 
the inhabitants by devouring the carcasses of 
dead animals. In Egypt great care is taken 
to afford crows every protection; and some 
devout Mussulmen have even bequeathed pro- 
perty for the regular support of a certain 
number of them. Shrimps and prawns found 
at the mouths of rivers subsist principally 
upon the putrid animal matter brought down 
by the stream. 

The act of procuring food is likewise of 
great importance to the vegetable kingdom. 
Insects, in extracting the saccharine matter 
found in the nectarium of vegetables, are often 
the means of applying the pollen to the 
stigma, thus rendering the impregnation of 
the flower more certain, particularly in the 
dioecious plants, where the male and female 
organs are in different flowers, or in different 
plants. Though the propensity to obtain food 
is so strong in all animals, they by no means 
eat every kind of alimentary matter they meet 
with indiscriminately. Even the most vora- 
cious possess an instinctive faculty, which en- 



TASTE. 117 

ables them to determine whether the food 
presented to them is fit to eat or not. In the 
great plague at Athens, 430 a. c, although the 
unburied corpses of the inhabitants were every- 
where lying about, in such positions as death 
had left them, the beasts and birds of prey did 
not touch any of them, which shows they per- 
ceived their poisonous nature : indeed, it is 
stated, that at this time most of the vultures 
and other carnivorous birds quitted the city 
altogether. Similar facts are recorded of other 
cities in which the inhabitants have become the 
victims of any violent epidemic. Animals, from 
their earliest existence, possess a faculty of 
distinguishing one kind of food from another. 
This was well demonstrated by the celebrated 
experiment of Galen, who procured a kid as 
soon as it was born, and presented it succes- 
sively with a vessel of honey, a vessel of oil, 
and a vessel of milk : the animal refused the 
honey, and the oil, but immediately partook 
of the milk. Grazing animals, which have a 
great variety of herbs offered to them on dif- 
ferent pasture-lands, do not feed upon them all 



118 



TASTE. 



indiscriminately, but select only such as are fit 
for the use, and proper for the nutrition, of each 
individually. Thus the ox will not eat any of 
the labiatse or the veronicas ; and the horse re- 
fuses all the cruciferous plants. Oxen, horses, 
sheep, and goats, partake of hardly any of the 
solanese, though they are very fond of the gra- 
minese, the leguminosaB, and the compositae. 
The horse refuses the common water-hemlock, 
which is eaten with avidity by the goat ; and 
the goat avoids the aconite, or bane-berries, for 
which the horse has a great partiality. The 
sheep eats the long-leafed water-hemlock, 
which the cow will not touch, 

Man obtains a knowledge of the properties 
of different kinds of food by experiment, and, 
too frequently, the taste alone decides him to 
use many sorts, which he is well aware are of 
an unwholesome nature. Taste, of all the 
senses, seems to produce the greatest variety 
of effect in different individuals; for what is 
delightful to the palate of one person, is often 
disgusting to that of another. It is only in 
this manner that any explanation can be given 



TASTE. 119 

of the cause of some most unwholesome articles 
of diet having always been held in the greatest 
estimation, even among the most civilized 
nations. Custom has the greatest influence 
on taste and diet, for not only do we gradually 
acquire a liking for many kinds of food which 
were at first unpleasant, but when they are of 
an indigestible nature, the stomach may, by 
perseverance in their use, be brought to digest 
them. 

Animals, it has been proved, can be made 
to subsist upon quite a different sort of food to 
that intended for them by nature. Cows, 
which are herbivorous animals, are often fed 
upon fish in Norway, during the winter, when 
no pasture can be procured for them ; and in 
several maritime districts in the East Indies 
horses are kept on a similar diet. John Hunter 
has shown that carnivorous birds, as the hawk, 
&c, may be gradually brought to digest grain ; 
and Spallanzani found that the eagle can live 
on bread, and the pigeon on flesh. In the 
human race, the peculiar dishes or articles of 
diet used by one class of people are at first 




120 TASTE. 

indigestible to another class, until gradually 
accustomed to them. Thus the food which 
the American finds beneficial would often be 
prejudicial to the Asiatic ; and what the Asiatic 
can digest easily would be rejected by the 
stomach of the European. A great many sub- 
stances, the taste of which is at first disagree- 
able, become so captivating from habit that 
they cannot be dispensed with. This is the 
case with tobacco, the use of which, in the 
period of about three centuries, has gradually 
become general amongst all nations, notwith- 
standing it does not possess any nutritious pro- 
perties, and that its flavour is particularly 
nauseous to persons unaccustomed to it. That 
a taste may be acquired by habit for almost 
anything, and the most disgusting substances 
relished as food, is proved by the great variety, 
and by the parts, of animals eaten by mankind. 
It is unfair to reproach savage tribes with their 
diet, for nothing can be more revolting than 
many articles of food eaten- by the most civilized 
nations. The trail, which is in fact the intes- 
tine of the woodcock, is considered a great 



TASTE. 121 

delicacy by epicures, and the dregs which drop 
from it whilst roasting are most carefully col- 
lected, and eaten with the greatest relish : the 
intestines of the buzzard are also held in high 
estimation : the diseased liver of the goose, a 
most unwholesome substance, is a very expen- 
sive and much -prized article of diet in France 
and Germany, forming the celebrated entremet 
named ' foie gras :' it was also in great request 
among the ancient Romans. This latter peo- 
ple were particularly famous for eating sub- 
stances not at all fit for food. They paid an 
exorbitant price for a celebrated sauce called 
garum, which was prepared from the putrid 
intestines of the thunny, mackerel, &c, mixed 
with vinegar, hot wine, salt, and spices. " No- 
bile nunc sitio luxuriosa garum."— {Martial, 
Epigr. I., xiii., v. 28.) A somewhat similar 
mixture, said to be prepared from the putrid 
intestines of the crab, is used at present at 
Tonkin. Many dishes were served up at the 
tables of the Romans which we should not be 
able to touch. Sausages made of sow's liver, 
chopped up with fat and various herbs, accom- 

G 



122 TASTE. 

panied with a sauce of milk, or dormice smeared 
with honey, and sprinkled with poppy juice, 
would probably not be much relished at our 
dinners. The altilia sumena, considered a 
great delicacy, was composed of the gravid 
uterus of swine. Lucian and Petronius Arbiter 
both speak of a sow's matrix being often served 
up with fried liver. Dishes made of the brains 
of ostriches and parrots, and of the tongues of 
nightingales and flamingoes, were much sought 
after. Indeed, in the period of their wealth and 
degeneracy, the Romans ransacked the world 
for substances to gratify their love of eating. 
" Vescendi causa terra marique omnia exqui- 
rere." — (Sail.) " Gustus elementa per omnia 
querunt." — (Juv.) Probably no people ever 
carried their gluttony so far as they did. At 
their feasts they used to remain at table till 
they could not eat another morsel : they would 
then retire into the antechambers belonging to 
the dining apartments, where basins were ready 
prepared, and take an emetic ; and after the 
stomach was emptied by its operation, they 
resumed their seats at the dinner-table, to con- 



TASTE. 123 

tinue their repasts. " Vomunt ut edant, edunt 
ut vomant." — (Sen.) 

The pleasure man derives from eating is so 
great, that no expense is spared for the grati- 
fication of the appetite ; and in the present day 
our tables are covered with productions from 
every quarter of the globe. Mahomet was too 
well aware of the esteem we have for the plea- 
sures of the table not to make them form one 
portion of the rewards allotted to the Faithful 
in his Paradise. Sale, in his preface to the 
Koran, says, " He taught his proselytes, that 
for the first entertainment of the blessed on 
their admission into Paradise the whole earth 
would appear as one loaf of bread, which the 
Creator would reach to them with his hand, 
holding it out like a cake. That for meat they 
would have the ox Balam, and the fish Nun, 
the lobes of whose liver alone will suffice 
seventy thousand men, being, as some imagine, 
to set before the principal guests, viz., those 
who to that number will be admitted into 
Paradise without examination ; though others 
suppose that a definite number is here put for 

g2 



124 TASTE. 

an indefinite, and that nothing more is meant 
thereby than to express a great multitude of 
people. From this feast every one will be 
dismissed to the mansion designed for him, 
where he will enjoy such a share of felicity as 
will be proportioned to his merits, but vastly 
exceed comprehension or expectation, since the 
very meanest in Paradise will have eighty 
thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the 
damsels of Paradise, besides the wives he had 
in this world, and a tent erected for him, of 
pearls, jacinths, and emeralds, of a very large 
extent; and, according to another tradition, 
will be waited on by three hundred attendants 
while he eats, will be served in dishes of gold, 
whereof three hundred shall be set before him 
at once, containing each a different kind of 
food, the last morsel of which will be as 
grateful as the first : he will also be supplied 
with as many sorts of liquor in vessels of 
the same metal ; and, to complete the enter- 
tainment, there will be no want of wine, 
which, though forbidden in this life, will 
vet be freelv allowed to be drunk in the 



TASTE. 



125 



next, and without danger, since the wine of 
Paradise will not intoxicate, as does that we 
drink here. The flavour of this wine we may 
conceive to be delicious, without a description, 
since the water of Tansim, and the other foun- 
tains which will be used to dilute it, is said to 
be wonderfully sweet and fragrant. If any 
object to these pleasures, as an impudent Jew 
did to Mahomet, that so much eating and 
drinking must necessarily require correspond- 
ing depletion, we answer, as the prophet did, 
that the inhabitants of Paradise will not need 
anything of the kind, for that all superfluities 
will be discharged and carried off by perspira- 
tion as odoriferous as musk, after which their 
appetite shall return afresh." 

The pleasure of eating is just as great in the 
inferior animals as in man. The quiet rumi- 
nants pass their lives in doing nothing else. 
If a large animal dies, multitudes of every class 
hasten to the spot to feast upon its body ; which 
is generally first attacked by carnivorous quad- 
rupeds, or by birds of prey, and if they do not 
speedily devour it, swarms of insects appear, 
which very shortly consume its softer textures, 



126 



TASTE. 



leaving only the bones. In some countries 
even these afford sustenance to the hyena and 
other animals, whose powerful jaws are so well 
adapted to grind them to powder, after which 
the digestive organs can easily extract from 
them the great quantity of nutritious matter 
the}^ contain. To give some idea of the rapid 
consumption of animal matter by carnivorous 
insects the opinion of Linnaeus should be 
quoted, who has affirmed that the carcass of a 
horse would not be devoured with the same 
celerity by a lion as it would be by three flesh- 
flies (Musca vomitoria) and their immediate 
progeny. Incredible as this may appear at 
first, it will seem less so when it is known 
that one flesh-fly will give birth to at least 
20,000 young larvae, each of which will, in the 
course of a day, devour so much food, and grow 
so rapidly, as to acquire in that short space of 
time an increase of two hundred times its own 
weight, and a few days are sufficient for the 
production of a third generation. 

EFFECTS OF ANIMAL FOOD. 

Animal food alone is not a desirable diet for 



EFFECTS OF ANIMAL FOOD. 127 

man, on account of its stimulating effects on 
the body. It is more nutritious than vegetable 
food ; and, used with discretion, causes a more 
complete development of the body to take 
place, and, consequently, increases the energies 
of the different functions. It has the effect of 
increasing the quantity of fibrin in the blood, 
and favouring the growth of the muscular sys- 
tem : hence a liberal allowance is proper for 
persons training themselves for the perform- 
ance of feats of strength, as prize-fighting, 
walking long distances, &c. It is not by any 
means advantageous when made the exclusive 
article of diet, as is shown by the condition of 
the almost purely carnivorous inhabitants of 
the earth, viz., the Esquimaux, Kamtschadales, 
Ostiaks, Samoieds, the inhabitants of parts 
of the coast of New South Wales, of some 
of the South h Sea Islands, the Ichthyophagi 
on the banks of some of the rivers in Africa, 
&c. These people are amongst the lowest, in 
every respect, in the great family of human 
nature : they possess no qualities, either corpo- 
real or mental, which tend in the least to show 



128 EFFECTS OF ANIMAL FOOD. 

that their diet is favourable to the health and 
development of the human frame. On the con- 
trary, the short duration of their lives, the nu- 
merous diseases to which they are liable, and 
the inferiority of their mental acquirements, 
all go far to prove that animal food alone is 
much more prejudicial to man than an almost 
exclusive vegetable diet. 

It must not be imagined, from what has just 
been stated, that animal food is considered to 
be disadvantageous when taken in proper quan- 
tities : on the contrary, in moderation it is 
most beneficial ; and, no doubt, a perfectly na- 
tural nutrition of the body cannot be obtained 
without it. The importance of its effects are 
proved by the peculiar conditions manifested 
by the carnivora which are intended to live 
on it exclusively. These animals, generally 
speaking, can support hunger for a much 
longer period than the herbivora : the lion, 
the marten, and the wolf frequently go with- 
out food for fifteen days, and yet, instead of 
showing signs of loss of strength and energy, 
they become more daring and ferocious ; but if 



EFFECTS OF VEGETABLE FOOD. 



129 



the horse, ox, and sheep are deprived of food 
only for three clays, they are completely ex- 
hausted ; and yet most of the herbivora are 
always eating, whilst the carnivora only take 
food at long intervals. 

EFFECTS OF VEGETABLE FOOD. 

Vegetable food renders the blood lighter, 
and is less stimulating than animal food, which 
is the reason of its being preferred in hot coun- 
tries. It affords the principal means of sub- 
sistence to the greater part of the population 
of the earth; though, when taken quite alone, 
it does not appear to be capable of effecting 
the perfect nutrition of the body, and therefore 
it must be considered inferior to animal food. 
The simpler the composition of vegetable food, 
the less it is capable of affording nourishment ; 
and many animals die of starvation when fed 
only with animal or vegetable substances which 
contain no azote. 

Dr. Stark died for want of nourishment, from 
limiting his diet to bread, butter, suet, sugar, 
olive-oil, and water. Clouet lived for one 

g 3 



130 EFFECTS OF VEGETABLE FOOD, 

month on nothing but potatoes and water, by 
which he was reduced to such a weak state that 
he was compelled to have recourse to more nu- 
tritious food. Magendie found that dogs fed 
only with sugar and distilled water died of 
starvation in from thirty to sixty-three days. 
Tiedemann and Gmelin treated geese in the same 
way, and found them die in from sixteen to twen- 
ty-seven days. One goose, weighing six pounds 
and an ounce, was fed on white sugar, and 
died in twenty-two days, having diminished 
one pound nine ounces in weight. A goose, 
weighing five pounds ten ounces, was fed with 
nothing but gum-arabic and water, and died in 
sixteen days, when it weighed only four pounds 
ten ounces. Another goose, weighing eight 
pounds and a half, fed with starch only, died 
in twenty-seven days, when it weighed only 
six pounds and one quarter. A sheep, which 
weighed fifty-two pounds, had nothing given to 
it daily but from six to ten ounces of sugar dis- 
solved in water: after twenty-two days it died, 
being greatly emaciated, and weighing only 
thirty-one pounds. In opposition to the results. 



EFFECTS OF VEGETABLE FOOD. 131 

of these experiments, it has been stated that a 
caravan of Abyssinians, consisting of nearly two 
thousand persons, who had lost their way in the 
desert, and had consumed all their provisions, 
subsisted for about two months on nothing but 
the gum-arabic they found amongst their mer- 
chandise. Probably, however, there is a little 
incorrectness in this account, for these people 
had a good many camels with them, and no 
doubt they also partook of the milk of these 
animals, which is a very compound sort of food. 
It is astonishing what a small quantity of ani- 
mal food is requisite to render vegetable food 
exceedingly nutritious. No people in Europe 
are stronger, or more robust, than the Irish, the 
Swiss, and the Gascons, whose diet consists 
chiefly of potatoes, bread, cheese, and butter- 
milk. Of the thirty-five millions of people in 
France, more than twenty-five subsist almost 
entirely on vegetable food ; and in Spain, Por- 
tugal, and all the south of Europe, the number 
of persons who live chiefly on vegetables is in 
about the same proportion. The labourers on 
the coast of Africa, who go from tribe to tribe 



132 



MIXED DIET. 



to perform the manual labour, are stated to live 
almost solely on plain rice, and yet they are re- 
markable for their great muscular strength. 
The Arabs on the shores of the Red Sea, who 
subsist mostly on lemons and dates, are able to 
carry loads of enormous weight. The Brahmins 
in India, the inhabitants of the Canary Islands, 
and of the Brazils, live almost entirely on 
vegetable food. The negroes, whose bodily 
strength is well known, feed chiefly on vegetable 
substances ; and the diet of manv of the South 

7 «/ 

Sea Islanders is similar, though their agility 
and strength are so great, that the stoutest and 
most active of our sailors had no chance with 
them in boxing and wrestling. These latter 
people do not, however, possess the same power 
of enduring exertion as the English ; for in 
boat races for some distance, though they shot 
far a-head at the outset, our sailors always 
overtook them, and ultimately came in first. 



MIXED DIET. 



After having examined the effects of animal 
and vegetable food upon the body, when taken 






MIXED DIET. 133 

separately, it will be right to pass to the con- 
sideration of the results produced by diet of a 
mixture of those two great classes of alimen- 
tary substances. The most conclusive evidence 
exists to prove that the tribes of men who do 
not limit themselves particularly either to ani- 
mal or vegetable food, but partake of both, are 
those in whom the function of nutrition is most 
perfectly performed. Every organ or tissue 
is found in them in the most perfect state in 
which it has been known to exist. Hence their 
superiority in every respect over their fellow- 
creatures, whether it be corporeally, mentally, 
in energy of character, in their exemption from 
disease, or in the duration of their lives. Im- 
perfect as human nature is, man is found in 
the most perfect state among these people ; 
and when all the circumstances connected with 
this question are taken into consideration, it 
is not extraordinary that it should be so. The 
account before given of the great variety of 
food taken by man has not been brought for- 
ward merely to excite an idle feeling of asto- 
nishment, but to show how bountifully the 



134 MIXED DIET. 

Creator has provided for his subsistence. The 
different articles of diet partaken of by the 
human race, and which are capable of afford- 
ing nourishment, amount to nearly four thou- 
sand in number, all produced in such abun- 
dance, that the destruction of mankind by 
famine would appear to be impossible. The 
extraordinary assimilating powers of the body 
render it capable of being nourished by matter 
of the same description as itself : so that man, 
in the last extremity of destitution, can derive 
sustenance from feeding on his fellow-creatures. 
This striking capacity for obtaining nourish- 
ment from such a large portion of the sub- 
stances composing the universe may be cited 
as one proof that the food of man was intended 
by nature to be of the most varied description. 
Next, the peculiar structure of his organs of 
digestion affords another argument in favour 
of this opinion. His teeth present a combina- 
tion of the peculiarities offered by those of 
animals destined to live exclusively either on 
animal or vegetable substances: some of them 
having sharp cutting edges, like those of the 



MIXED DIET. 



135 



carnivora, for tearing and biting ; and others 
presenting broad irregular surfaces, like thoes 
of the herbivora, well adapted for grinding 
and comminuting:. The human stomach is 
not so simple as that in the true carnivora, nor 
so complicated as that in the herbivora, but 
holds a medium position between the two. 
The intestinal tube in the human frame aver- 
ages six times the length of the body, whereas 
in the carnivora it is not more than once or 
twice its length, and in the herbivora it is 
sometimes as much as thirty times as long. 
Man also is capable of deriving nourishment 
from a much greater number of different sub- 
stances than any other animal. It is impos- 
sible, after considering these facts, not to feel 
satisfied that Nature intended the human race 
to partake of a great variety of diet, and that, 
in fact, man may be said to be an omnivorous 
animal. Diversity of food should be consi- 
dered as the first requisite for the full develop- 
ment of the system ; and no doubt nutrition 
will be more complete in proportion as the va- 
rietv of the articles of food to be selected from, 



136 MIXED DIET. 

with discretion, is increased. The means of 
obtaining a variety of food have gone on increas- 
ing, pari passu, with the civilization and intel- 
ligence of the human race. The gradual man- 
ner in which a regular communication between 
so many parts of the world has been brought 
about has enabled different nations to make an 
interchange of their most important articles of 
food : the result of which is, that a greater 
quantity of wholesome nourishment in general 
is produced at this time on the earth, than at 
any former period within the memory of man ; 
though unfortunately it is far from being suffi- 
cient for the exigencies of the human race, nor 
can it probably be rendered so without the 
greatest exertions continued for ages. Euro- 
peans may justly lay claim to the merit of 
having been most instrumental in conveying the 
different animals and vegetables most useful 
as articles of diet from one country to another. 
From Europe and Asia they have carried our 
common ruminants, and fowls, corn, sugar, 
rice, tamarinds, tea, coffee, some spices, oranges, 
and many other vegetables, to America and 



MIXED DIET. 137 

Australasia. They have brought back from 
America, in return, the turkey, maize, potatoes, 
manihot, the pine-apple, &c, and transported 
them to different regions in Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and Australasia, where the climate and 
soil are fitted for their existence and growth. 
They have thus conferred a great benefit on 
the human race in general ; for the more com- 
pletely this interchange is carried out, the 
more will the means for nourishing the body 
be multiplied, which is the best way to im- 
prove its condition. 

Many persons entertain a very different 
opinion on this subject, and consider that the 
human race has degenerated, and that diseases 
have become more numerous and fatal, since 
the variety of our food has been so much 
increased. Some authors state in their writ- 
ings, that the ancient Greeks and Romans 
were mainly indebted, for their superiority 
over their cotemporaries, to their frugal man- 
ner of living, and to the little variety of diet 
they enjoyed ; for they had neither brandy, 
liqueurs, tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, butter. 



138 MIXED DIET. 

nor any of the numerous articles of food used 
at present in Europe, which have been intro- 
duced, or are imported, from Asia and Ame- 
rica. Allowing that some of the greatest or- 
naments of the human race have emanated 
from among these people, the mass of the 
population were not at all in an analogous state 
of advancement, but, on the contrary, were in 
a very abject condition both of mind and 
body, existing for the most part in a state of 
slavery. The average length of life was shorter 
amongst them than amongst us, and they 
were affected with many diseases more dread- 
ful than anything of the kind known in modern 
times, as many forms of leprosy, &c, which 
must be principally attributed to defective 
nutrition of the body. After these observa- 
tions, it is almost needless to offer any remarks 
about the mistake made by those persons who 
fancy that because our ancestors of some six 
or seven hundred years ago did not possess the 
means we have of varying our diet, they were 
superior in corporal development to ourselves. 
One trivial circumstance may be mentioned 



MIXED DIET. 139 

to prove the incorrectness of such an opinion. 
At the time of the tournament lately given by 
the Earl of Eglintoun, at his seat in Scotland, 
when the old armour of so many departed 
Templars was brought out, for the use of the 
knights who were to figure at that entertain- 
ment, many periodical publications teemed 
with paragraphs asserting that a great deal of 
padding and filling up was necessary, to enable 
our young but degenerate aristocracy, as they 
were called, to keep on the corselets, arm- 
pieces and sheaves, on account of the gigantic 
stature of the persons for whom they had origi- 
nally been made. Mr. Pratt of Bond Street, 
who provided a large portion of this armour, 
states the very reverse to have been the case ; 
that the reason, in almost every instance, the 
old armour had to be altered was, that it was 
too small, instead of being too large. Most 
of the cuirasses, and the coverings for the 
limbs, were found to be so tight across the 
chest, and round the arms and legs, that they 
could not be worn, and scarcely any of the 
helmets could be got on before they were en- 



140 MIXED DIET. 

larged : most satisfactorily proving that the 
higher orders of young men of the present 
day, in this country, possess a more perfect 
corporeal development than those of a similar 
class had six or seven hundred years ago. 

In consequence of the very debased state 
of those nations who live exclusively on ani- 
mal food, it is impossible accurately to deter- 
mine what the kinds of animal substances are 
which, when eaten alone, have the most bene- 
ficial effects in aiding nutrition. This is not 
the case with vegetable food, for the great dif- 
ference in the condition of those nations who 
subsist chiefly on this kind of diet shows that 
some vegetables are much more efficient than 
others for nourishing the body. By compar- 
ing the different nations one with another 
who subsist principally upon vegetable matter, 
it will be found that the European, who lives 
chiefly on wheat and the other cerealea, is 
far in advance of the Brahmin, who lives on 
rice or millet ; of the Chinese, who lives on 
rice; or of the Mexican, who lives on maize; 
and therefore it is fair to conclude, that, of all 



MIXED DIET. 141 

these kinds of grain, the cerealea are best- 
fitted for the health and development of the 
body. If the state of the human frame be a 
fair criterion by which a correct opinion may 
be formed of the influence of food, there is no 
difficulty in ascertaining what kinds of ani- 
mal substances, taken in conjunction with ve- 
getables, are most advantageous. The most 
advanced nations on the earth, who present 
to us the highest combination of the faculties, 
which dignify human nature ; who offer in- 
stances of the greatest energy of character; 
who in the aggregate have most power of 
resisting diseases ; and who offer, on the aver- 
age, examples of the longest duration of life, 
are those who subsist on food chiefly derived 
from the cerealea, and our common ruminants. 
And there can be no question that if these 
people could command a more ample supply 
of these kinds of food than they can at pre- 
sent, they would manifest the superior attri- 
butes they already possess, in a still greater 
degree of perfection. They are descended from 
that division of mankind which has been de- 



L42 MIXED DIET. 

signated the Caucasian race, who are supposed 
by many to be indebted for their superiority 
over the other races to being endowed with a 
better natural organization, and to their having 
originally inhabited a temperate region of the 
earth. The great probability that these cir- 
cumstances have had a marked influence on 
their condition cannot be denied ; but at the 
same time it ought to be remembered that the 
parts of the world from which this race has 
sprung, the west of Asia, is exactly that 
to which all the kinds of vegetable and ani- 
mal food are indigenous which seem best 
fitted for effecting the development of the 
body. Many other countries have equally 
temperate and salubrious climates : so these 
are advantages which have not been enjoyed 
by the Caucasian race alone ; and allowing 
them to possess a superior natural organiza- 
tion, the probability must still be admitted, 
that they are also in a great measure indebted 
for their advancement before their fellow-men 
to their having had their origin in the region 
of the earth which naturally produces the 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 143 

most excellent kinds of nutritious matter. The 
Land of Promise of the Scriptures has fur- 
nished more of the best sorts of food, both ani- 
mal and vegetable, than any other part of the 
globe. 

INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

Having established that a mixed diet is most 
natural and beneficial to man, the modifica- 
tions which can be effected in living beings, by 
furnishing them with peculiar kinds of nutri- 
tious matter, will next be investigated. The 
great variety of alimentary matter that exists, 
possessing properties which produce the most 
opposite effects, holds out a prospect of our 
being able to improve, to an unprecedented ex- 
tent, all beings whose nutrition can be brought 
under our control; and it is reasonable to 
anticipate, that as our knowledge of the pro- 
perties of different kinds of food, and of their 
combinations, increases, changes may be ef- 
fected in the human frame, which will cause it 
to enjoy greater immunity from disease, and 
prolong the period of its existence. Such re- 
sults will be more completely brought about 



144 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

by the improvement of the condition of those 
living; beings which serve as food ; for the 
more perfect development of the body is 
conditional upon the excellence of the matter 
by which it is nourished. Man has it in his 
power, by directing his attention to the nou- 
rishment of the beings upon which he subsists, 
whether vegetables or animals, to cause quite 
as important alterations in them, as he can in 
his own body by adopting a similar course. 
Nothing exhibits more strikingly how much 
living beings can be improved, by subjection 
to careful plans for nutrition, than an inquiiy, 
first of all, into some of the alterations which 
different kinds of cultivation have produced in 
many vegetables used as food. Those from 
which the human race procure the greater 
proportion of their subsistence appear to 
have been very different in their natural state 
to what they are now, when they furnished 
much less nutritious matter than they do at 
present. 

The original plant from which wheat was 
produced is not known, and many botanists 
appose that continued cultivation for ages, 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 145 

has so modified it, that it cannot now be dis- 
tinguished. 

Rice, rye, barley, and oats have not yet 
been found growing in a wild state, so we are 
unacquainted with the plants from which they 
have originated. This will appear less ex- 
traordinary, when the alterations which have 
occurred in other vegetables are considered. 
The almond, with its tough coriaceous husk, 
has been changed by long culture into the 
peach, with its beautiful soft and delicious 
pulp ; the acrid sloe, into the luscious plum ; 
and the harsh, bitter crab, into the golden 
pippin. Attention to nutrition has produced 
quite as marked changes in the pear, cherry, 
and other fruit-trees, many of which have 
not only been altered in their qualities and 
appearance, but even in their habits. Celery, 
so agreeable to most palates, is a modifica- 
tion of the apium graveolens, the taste of 
which is so acrid and bitter that it cannot 
be eaten. Our cauliflowers and cabbages, 
which weigh many pounds, are largely de- 
veloped coleworts that grow wild on the sea- 

H 



146 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

shore, and do not weigh more than half an 
ounce each. The rose has been produced by cul- 
tivation from the common wild-briar. Many 
plants may be modified with advantage, by 
suppressing the growth of one part, which 
causes increased development of other parts. 
Some propagated by slips for a long series of 
generations, lose their seeds by obliteration, 
and then they can be propagated by slips 
only : in these instances, the nutritious matter 
for the growth of the seeds is often attracted 
by the roots, which become inordinately de- 
veloped. This is the case with the common 
potato, the root of which has increased in 
magnitude, at the expense of the fruit or 
apples, which have diminished in size. All 
these changes in vegetables have been produced 
by pruning, transplanting, grafting, by sup- 
plying them with a variety of soils and ma- 
nures, and by exposing them to different de- 
grees of temperature and quantities of light ; 
in fact, by regulating their nutrition. 

It may be remarked that particular plans of 
nutrition produce such striking effects in vege- 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 147 

tables, because they are more under control 
than animals ; but when animals are subjected 
to similar influences, analogous results are ob- 
tained. By attending to the food, exercise, 
and breeding of horses, this country can boast 
of the finest race of those animals in the 
world. Our farmers have contrived, by di- 
recting their attention to the nutrition of 
sheep, to obtain a breed which affords a com- 
bination of the least bone, most meat, and 
the finest wool. By particular plans of diet, 
they can cause a deposition of fatty matter 
to take place in oxen, sheep, pigs, &c, to an 
enormous extent; and though agricultural 
societies award prizes for the fattest of these 
animals, the advantages of bringing them into 
this state, if they are to serve as food, must be 
very questionable to the physician, except as 
an experiment to prove the influence which 
peculiar plans of diet have on animals. 

Geese, when overfed, and deprived of exer- 
cise, become affected with a sort of hepatic ca- 
chexy, which is the way the ' foie-gras,' so much 
esteemed in France, is obtained. A lean goose 

h2 



148 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

is selected, and confined in a deal box, which 
is so small that the bird cannot turn in it : the 
bottom is provided with a wide grating of rods 
for the passage of the dung. A hole is made 
in the fore part of this box for the head of the 
bird, under which a vessel is placed full of 
water, with some pieces of charcoal in it, to 
keep it fresh. The bird is placed in this state 
in a cellar, or other dark place, no doubt to 
prevent all distraction, and concentrate all the 
powers of the constitution on the digestive or- 
gans : it is even said the creature's eyes are 
sometimes put out, to render it more inactive. 
The food employed is maize soaked in water, 
considerable quantities of which are crammed 
down the bird's throat morning and evening, 
and the rest of the day if remains constantly 
drinking and guggling the water placed before 
it. About the twenty-second day some poppy 
oil is mixed with the maize, and by the end of 
the month the fattening process is usually com- 
pleted. This is indicated by the difficulty 
the bird has in breathing, and by the pre- 
sence of a lump of fat under each wing. It 






INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 149 

is now necessary to kill it, or otherwise it 
would die of fat. Some idea may be formed 
of the state of obesity produced, when it is 
stated that the liver of a goose, treated in this 
manner, often weighs from one to two pounds, 
and that the body, which is considered excel- 
lent eating, furnishes while roasting from three 
to five pounds of fat. 

The flesh of male animals deprived of their 
procreating powers acquires a more delicate 
flavour, and therefore is more esteemed, as in 
the capon and in wether mutton. All parti- 
cular articles of food produce marked effects on 
animals. Sheep accustomed to browse on hills 
or mountain lands, where the pasture abounds 
in roots, afford mutton of a much finer flavour 
than those fed on plains. The fat of fowls 
which have been fed on garlic acquires the 
flavour of that substance, and the flesh of birds 
which eat fish has a fishy taste. A striking 
difference is observed in the secretions and ex- 
cretions of animals, according as they are fed 
on animal or vegetable food. They are very 
different in the dog when fed alternately, for 



150 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

days or weeks, on bread or meat alone. The 
urinary calculi, in vegetable-feeding animals, 
are always composed of carbonate of lime, 
though calculi of phosphate of lime are met 
with in the digestive tube ; whilst in man and 
the carnivorous animals, the urinary calculi are 
chiefly composed of phosphate of lime. Urea 
and the gouty chalky secretions are very abun- 
dant in men and animals which partake largely 
of animal food. Naturalists inform us, the 
larva of the queen bee is nourished with a pe- 
culiar kind of food, which is the reason this in- 
sect has a different organization from that of 
the other bees. The cause of these singular 
effects occurring in living beings is to be re- 
ferred to the remarkable properties the different 
organs possess of appropriating to themselves 
different elements contained in the food. In 
this way food may be made to perform the part 
of medicine, and produce the most striking al- 
terations in the body. Many articles of diet 
act apparently in a similar manner to those 
medicinal substances which have a specific in- 
fluence on some particular tissue or class of 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 151 

organs. Some drugs particularly affect the 
skin, as antimony, sulphur, &c. ; others the 
kidneys, as turpentine, which communicates an 
odour of violets to their secretion ; or rhu- 
barb, which has been observed to pass from 
the stomach to the fluid separated by the kid- 
neys in a few minutes. The ergot of rye 
induces contractions of the gravid uterus; 
an effect not produced to the same extent, or 
with the same rapidity, by any other substance. 
Digitalis, or fox-glove, has the effect of caus- 
ing the contractions of the heart to be slower, 
weaker, and a general depression of the powers 
of the circulating system. Calomel and iodine 
act powerfully on the glands and absorbents. 
Alcohol has a special influence on the brain 
and nervous system. The cause of each of 
these different medicines affecting some parti- 
cular part of the body, and not the whole of it, 
proceeds from their being of a nature which 
allows of their passing more readily from the 
blood, or circulating fluid, into the intimate 
structure of one part of the system than into 
another. This law obtains just as much for food 






152 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

as it does for medicines, and therefore food may 
frequently be made to supply the place of me- 
dicine, though the latter cannot be made to 
supply the place of the former. Medicines un- 
questionably, for the most part, produce more 
rapid changes in the body than food, on which 
account they are indispensable in acute dis- 
eases, which would cause death if not quickly 
arrested in their progress ; but some of the 
most fatal maladies to which the human frame 
is liable are as much under the control of diet 
as of medicine. The remedies employed in in- 
cipient phthisis, or consumption, are in a great 
measure rendered efficacious or otherwise, by 
the plan laid down for the diet of the patient. 
The quantity of fibrin in the blood can only 
be increased or diminished by means of the 
kind of food which is taken. For this reason, 
a liberal allowance of animal food has some- 
times the greatest influence in checking a ten- 
dency to the formation of tubercles in the lungs ; 
though in other cases where a similar affection 
is to be apprehended, if inflammatory action 
appear likely to ensue, it ought only to be 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 153 

taken in very moderate quantities. Phthisical 
patients, whose stomachs will bear a good deal 
of milk, often find the nutritious effects of 
that fluid greatly increased by taking chaly- 
beates with it, the medicine and the food seem- 
ing to assist one another, in producing a bene- 
ficial influence on the body. 

A costive habit of body, which is the imme- 
diate cause of two-thirds of the illnesses that 
affect the middling and upper classes in this 
country, may very frequently be remedied by 
remodelling the whole plan of diet. In most 
of these cases recourse is usually had at last to 
violent medicines, which by their operation ex- 
haust the vital powers of the system ; though if 
the manner of living were regulated by a few 
simple rules, there would be no occasion to take 
violent medicines at all. The reason steel medi- 
cines are so beneficial to females affected with 
chlorosis, or green-sickness, is explained by its 
having been ascertained that in this complaint 
there is a deficiency of iron in the blood. Dr. 
Rollo found that when persons affected with 
diabetes mellitus, a disease characterised by the 

h 3 



154 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

sweetness of the urinary secretion, live entirely 
on animal food, and particularly fat, thereby 
avoiding all articles of diet which contain sugar, 
or the principles of sugar, the urine very fre- 
quently loses its sweetness entirely. He therefore 
recommended a regimen of animal substances as 
a cure for this complaint ; but, unfortunately, as 
soon as the patient returns to the use of a mix- 
ture of animal and vegetable food, the sweetness 
of the urine returns again, and the disease ge- 
nerally proves fatal. At the same time the 
change produced upon the urine in these cases 
proves the influence particular plans of diet 
have on the health. 

By high living, or the use of a great quan- 
tity of animal food, an excess of azote is intro- 
duced into the system, which causes the form- 
ation of small calculi in the kidneys, that are 
termed gravel. These substances are princi- 
pally composed of uric acid, a highly azotized 
substance, and their production appears to af- 
ford the system a means of getting rid of a 
part of the superabundance of the azote it con- 
tains. The influence diet has on this complaint 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 155 

is well illustrated by the following case ob- 
served and described by M. M'agendie : — 

" A Hanseatic merchant, who had for many 
years indulged himself a good deal with high 
living, became affected with gravel. He con- 
tinued to keep an excellent table up to the year 
1814, when, his affairs becoming embarrassed, 
he emigrated to England, where he lived very 
miserably ; but his complaint left him. In a 
short time, however, he re-established his busi- 
ness, which enabled him to return to his former 
plan of life ; when he soon found his disease 
return. He was ruined a second time ; and, 
being in an almost destitute state, went to 
France, where he soon became exempt from his 
usual affection. But, such is the elasticity of 
commerce, that by industry he finally suc- 
ceeded in acquiring a competency, which once 
more led him to resume his former habits, and 
again he found himself a martyr to his old 
complaint. Under these circumstances he ap- 
plied to M. Magendie for professional advice." 

Food containing great quantities either of 
hydrogen or oxygen gases produces very im- 



156 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

portant effects on the system. Hydrogenous 
food, such as fat meat, butter, oil, and particu- 
larly alcoholic liquors, causes a great change in 
the chemical constitution of the body, which 
induces bilious affections, and a tendency to 
unwholesome fatness. Spirituous liquors ap- 
pear to be the cause of what is termed spontane- 
ous combustion of the body, which has usually 
been observed to occur in elderly females ad- 
dicted to dram-drinking. They seem to pro- 
duce such an excessive hydrogenation of the 
body, that it becomes charged with nearly as 
much hydrogen gas as is contained in a piece 
of common coal, which renders it very liable to 
ignition. The bodies of persons in this state 
often become lighted whilst they are dozing be- 
fore the fire : at first the clothes get ignited, 
when the combustion soon extends to the body 
itself, which is said to burn with a slow blue 
flame ; though it has never been found com- 
pletely incinerated, some parts always remain- 
ing only half burnt, whilst others are entirely 
consumed. Changes equally marked are pro- 
duced in the body by food charged with oxygen 



INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 157 

gas. Acids, which contain a considerable quan- 
tity of oxygen, usually excite the action of the 
absorbents, and cause leanness. On the other 
hand, the want of food containing oxygen, joined 
probably to deficient means for nourishment in 
general, seems to be the cause of sea-scurvy. 
The influence of diet either in inducing, pre- 
venting, or curing disease cannot be more 
strikingly illustrated than by making a compa- 
rison between the accounts left us by officers 
of the navy a century ago, of the ravages made 
at that period by scurvy among sailors, and 
those now published of the health of the crews 
of her Majesty's ships. 

With the exception of a few instances among 
the officers and men employed in exploring the 
polar regions, the British fleet may be said to 
have been quite exempt from this horrible ma- 
lady since the time of Captain Cook ; previously 
to that date, any one who ventured to under- 
take a long sea voyage must have had every 
reason to anticipate it would be fatal to him. 
After being a few months at sea, scurvy always 
made its appearance ; and in a moderate ship's 



158 INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF DIET. 

company eight or ten deaths usually occurred 
daily ; whilst the rest of the crew became so 
dispirited and debilitated by this complaint, 
that they had hardly strength left to throw the 
dead bodies of their companions into the sea, 
which are therefore described as being often 
left washing about the decks, after they had 
been sewn up in hammocks. To show that 
the above is by no means an exaggerated ac- 
count, it is stated that Admiral Hosier, who 
sailed from England in 1726, with seven ships 
of the line, to the West Indies, buried the 
whole of his ships' companies twice, and died 
himself afterwards of a broken heart. At pre- 
sent, however, this disease is so rare in our 
ships, that most of the naval surgeons of the 
present day can never have had an opportunity 
of seeing it at all. This is proved to be the 
case by the returns from the great naval hos- 
pital at Haslar; for the number of cases of 
scurvy admitted into that establishment, in the 
year 1780, was 1457, whilst in 1806 and 1807 
only one case was admitted each year ; and 
now instances of it are very seldom met with. 






RULES FOR DIET. 159 

The eradication of this disease, for that is not 
too strong a term to use on this occasion, has 
been effected by the employment of preventives 
and remedies which are purely dietetic ; and 
consist in giving our ships' companies as liberal 
a supply of fresh vegetables as possible, with 
preserved fruits, sugar, infusion of malt, spruce 
beer, and vinegar; but particularly of regu- 
lar allowances of lemon -juice, prepared in a 
concentrated state expressly for the purpose; 
which, by a general order of the Admiralty, is 
given to the men in the presence of some of 
the officers, to insure its being taken, Now 
of all these articles the most efficient in coun- 
teracting this disease are those which contain 
an excess of oxygen ; a fact greatly in favour 
of the theory which attributes this complaint 
to a deficiency of oxygen in the system. 

The foregoing remarks are quite sufficient to 
show the remarkable effects particular kinds of 
diet cause in some cases ; but it is difficult, on 
account of the magnitude of the subject, unless 
some particular change is to be produced in the 
system, to give specific rules for diet in general. 



160 RULES FOR DIET. 

It usually happens also, that each constitution 
has its peculiarity, which requires to be at- 
tended to. The great object is to comply as 
much as possible with the intentions of nature. 
1st. A liberal but not excessive quantity of 
food should be taken daily. 2ndly. The food 
ought to consist of a mixture of animal and 
vegetable substances; because the digestive 
organs of the human body are constructed for 
the digestion of both these kinds of aliment. 
3rdly. The food should be varied from day to 
day. Every person, in order to maintain the 
full vigour of his body, ought to partake of an 
ample quantity of food of a good quality daily, 
conditions which unfortunately belong to the 
diet of a very small fraction of the inhabitants 
of the earth. The young and the aged require 
most nourishment proportionately ; the former 
to allow of the building up of the body, the 
latter to obtain sufficient stimulus to the sys- 
tem when its powers are beginning to fail. 
In both these instances digestion is performed 
more rapidly than at other periods of life, and 
therefore the intervals between the different 



RULES FOR DIET. 161 

meals should be short, though care must be 
taken to prevent their being repeated so often as 
to cause the stomach to be overloaded. 

For persons of weak stomach, animal is 
more digestible than vegetable food. At the 
same time a great excess of animal food is un- 
wholesome : people therefore with a good 
digestion, who make hearty meals, ought to 
eat a considerable quantity of vegetable matter, 
for if they were to satisfy their hunger with 
animal food alone, they would take more of it 
than is desirable. Those who have a poor appe- 
tite should allow themselves more animal food, 
in proportion, than vegetable. The French 
plan of eating enormous quantities of bread 
at dinner is unwholesome for most people, 
unless they take very violent exercise ; a very 
liberal allowance of bread is always apt to in- 
duce head-ache, and a confined state of the 
bowels. A great many disorders of the diges- 
tive organs result from not knowing how to 
regulate the proportions of animal and vege- 
table food which should be taken. Children, 
in consequence of the keenness of their appe- 



162 RULES FOR DIET. 

tites, require a good deal of food ; and therefore, 
if fed principally on animal substances, they 
would eat too much of them, and grossness of 
body would be induced. Dieticians often ex- 
claim against the practice of giving children 
pies and puddings, which they consider are 
invariably unwholesome. This is a mistake : 
if a child is in a very robust state of health, 
and can easily digest moderate quantities of 
those articles of diet, they are very proper for 
him, because they prevent his eating too much 
meat ; and it is clear that whenever a very large 
quantity of food is taken, Nature intended that 
it should not be of too concentrated a de- 
scription. The great mischief produced by 
pies and puddings proceeds from their being 
given, because they are considered light food, 
to children whose digestive powers are weak ; 
and in these cases they give rise to all the bad 
consequences of indigestion. The best plan 
for restoring the powers of the digestive organs 
in weakly children is to give them a liberal 
allowance of animal food, and prevent their 
having much vegetable matter. Almost all 



RULES FOR DIET. 163 

children amongst the middling classes of so- 
ciety, who pass several hours of the day in study, 
should have meat once a day ; and many of 
them require it twice a day, and but little ve- 
getable matter. Children who are not allowed 
a sufficient quantity of animal food are very 
apt to exhibit a low state of vitality, which 
is favourable to the production of parasitic 
growths, whether animal or vegetable, on dif- 
ferent parts of the body. They are therefore 
particularly subject to many cutaneous affec- 
tions, which are produced by animalculse and 
fungi, that make their appearance on the skin 
and cause it to be diseased. The common 
psora results from the irritation produced by 
an animalcule which burrows in the skin. 
The infrequency of this disorder among the 
wealthier classes of society is quite as much to 
be attributed to the liberal diet they enjoy, as 
to the attention paid to preserve the cleanli- 
ness of their bodies. The boys at Christ's 
Hospital are very liable to scald-head, and 
many other cutaneous diseases: in fact, the 
former is hardly ever out of the school. These 



164 



RULES FOR DIET. 



complaints result in a great measure from im- 
perfect nutrition, as the children are not al- 
lowed a sufficiency of animal food. Nothing 
can be more objectionable than that in this ex- 
cellent establishment, with its enormous funds, 
there should be kept up the system of ban- 
yan-days, as they are called, on which the 
boys do not get any meat at all, and very 
often nothing but bread and butter. No doubt 
this abstemious plan is followed, because it is 
considered healthy. But this opinion is most 
erroneous ; for there is little doubt if the boys 
had a more liberal animal diet allotted to them, 
and if great care were taken that all the articles 
of food given them should be of the best quality, 
most of the cutaneous diseases with which 
these children are so frequently tormented 
would soon disappear, and they would be alto- 
gether less likely to be attacked by illnesses 
than they are at present. 

The rules for diet usually laid down do not 
inform people what they ought to eat, but 
rather recommend them to abstain from food 
as much as possible, on which account great 



RULES FOR DIET. 165 

abstinence is generally recommended as most 
likely to ensure health. This is all very well, 
when people take too much food, and temper- 
ance in living is, no doubt, of the greatest 
consequence, but the stomach was not fur- 
nished to the human body in order that as 
little use as possible should be made of it : the 
real object is to ascertain how it may be em- 
ployed to be of the greatest service to the 
health. Full vigour of system can never be 
produced by starvation ; it can only be obtained 
by a sufficient supply of materials, capable of 
completely developing the different organs of 
the body, and keeping them in repair. The 
instance of Cornaro, who improved his health 
so much by great frugality of diet, is therefore 
frequently most improperly quoted ; for though 
the plan of living he followed might suit some 
persons, it would infallibly cause disease, and 
ultimately death, if rigorously adopted by most 
people. The account he has left of the small 
quantities of food he was in the habit of subsist- 
ing on is alone sufficient to show how injurious 
the majority of individuals would find an at- 



166 RULES FOR DIET. 

tempt to live in a similar manner. He tells us, 
that he was extremely unhealthy and decrepid 
up to the age of forty, when he determined on 
adopting a most abstemious plan of diet, and 
eating everything by weight. The entire quan- 
tity of food he took daily consisted of twelve 
ounces of bread, eggs, &c, and fourteen ounces 
of liquids, making altogether only twenty-six 
ounces of food, solid and liquid. By follow- 
ing this course he recovered his health, and 
lived to be one hundred and four years of age. 
Many may suppose that the long life he attained 
proves the healthiness of his mode of living ; 
it was certainly healthy for him, and might be 
so for any other person in a similar state of 
body to himself : but he must always be consi- 
dered as a sort of invalid, in whom the powers 
of nutrition were very weak, and unable to 
assimilate a larger quantity of nourishment ; 
for if he had ever required more food, he could 
not have borne it, as was proved by the addi- 
tion of merely two ounces of solid food to his 
usual allowance always causing him fever, and 
yet a more generous diet would, undoubtedly, 






RULES FOR DIET. 167 

have been very beneficial to him, if he could 
have supported it. It is by no means desirable 
to try and subsist upon too little food, for this 
practice occasionally induces a peculiar con- 
dition of the stomach, which renders it inca- 
pable of bearing the stimulus of the quantity 
of nourishment necessary for a vigorous state 
of body. In fact, in the greater number of 
cases of indigestion, the difficulty is to get the 
stomach to bear anything like a liberal allow- 
ance of food. Many dyspeptic people have 
an appetite, but, in consequence of the weak- 
ness of the stomach, food taken even in mo- 
derate quantities causes great uneasiness and 
derangement of the whole system. A com- 
mon opinion prevails that indigestion is almost 
always brought on by over-eating : such is 
very frequently the case; though too much 
abstinence produces similar results more ge- 
nerally than is usually supposed. The au- 
thor has frequently been consulted by persons, 
particularly young females, who have by de- 
grees diminished their daily allowance of food 
so much, that at last their appetite becomes so 



168 RULES FOR DIET. 

indifferent, that they are scarcely able to eat 
all. These cases are very difficult to manage, 
and in several instances the assimilating powers 
of the system have been reduced to such a low 
ebb, that they have never recovered their tone. 
Unless a most rigorous discipline is regularly 
enforced, to compel such persons to take every 
day a certain portion of food, which ought to 
be gradually increased, nothing is to be done. 
The aversion of these patients for food is some- 
times so great, that they have recourse to every 
possible contrivance to avoid being made to 
take it; until at last the system becomes so 
weakened, that other diseases, as consumption, 
irregularities in the circulation, &c, supervene. 
In one case, that of the daughter of a medical 
man, who had for two years lived upon a very 
small quantity of food, taking scarcely any- 
thing but a little bread and butter, and hardly 
any meat, the most serious consequences to 
the health were apprehended. It was there- 
fore determined to administer to her a certain 
quantity of food every day, and at the regular 
hours for meals, in the same way that medi- 



RULES FOR DIET. 169 

cines are given. Her father undertook this 
duty himself, and through his unremitting care 
her strength and health were with great trou- 
ble restored. The diet she was first put upon 
consisted chiefly of strong jelly of meat, certain 
portions of which she was compelled to eat 
every day. After the stomach had become 
a little accustomed to this increase of food, a 
part of a new-laid egg was given in the same 
way, then a little milk, and afterwards a small 
quantity of meat was allowed her. By follow- 
ing out this plan very carefully, she began to 
recover her strength, her appetite returned by 
degrees, and at last her health was re-esta- 
blished. 

One great cause of people's taking too little 
food arises from their making, or desiring to 
make, an undue exertion of their intellectual 
powers. But the fact of their being able to 
support mental fatigue better when they live 
very abstemiously, than when they take a 
moderate quantity of food, is the best proof 
that can be adduced of the unhealthiness of 
such a plan of living. Whenever one organ 



170 RULES FOR DIET. 

of the body is called upon to make undi 
exertion, it is done at the expense of all the 
other organs. Thus excessive activity of the 
brain requires all the powers of the system 
to be concentrated on that apparatus, and 
consequently all the other parts of the body 
are deprived of a great deal of their energy. 
In this way, when the mind is very active, 
the stomach is less capable of performing its 
functions, and the powers of nutrition of the 
body are debilitated. It therefore becomes 
necessary to give the stomach less to do, and 
take very little food ; for if the stomach and 
brain also were called upon at the same time 
to exert themselves a great deal, the demand 
upon the powers of the system would be too 
great, neither one nor the other would per- 
form its function properly, and most likely 
illness would ensue. Persons, then, who are 
anxious to elicit from themselves splendid in- 
tellectual manifestations do quite right for 
this purpose to live sparingly, and thus re- 
quire little exertion from the stomach ; but in 
doing so, they do not live in the manner most 



RULES FOR DIET. 171 

conducive to health. Sir Isaac Newton 
during the time he was occupied with his 
work on Optics, which he considered his 
masterpiece, drank nothing but water, and 
lived very abstemiously. Napoleon, Byron, 
&c, have all lived sparingly when their 
minds were fully occupied. The professed 
gamester dines on boiled fowl and lemonade, 
to keep his head clear, without which he 
knows he has no chance of winning by play 
in the evening. Though this style of living 
favours great activity of the brain, it is not 
to be recommended. The plan to preserve 
the health is to live in such a manner that 
every part of the body may be allowed its 
share of activity, and not to concentrate the 
whole of the vital energies on any one organ 
in particular. It may be said that many in- 
dividuals who have exhibited the greatest 
mental powers have been remarkable for their 
longevity : this is quite true, but the powers 
of the body vary exceedingly in different 
individuals. Where one person is found who 
can support an unwholesome plan of living, 

i2 



172 RULES FOR DIET. 

there are thousands who fall victims to it. 
Examine the effects too much mental ex- 
ertion produces on individuals who do not 
naturally possess great strength of constitu- 
tion, and power of enduring intellectual fatigue. 
A vast majority of the men in this country 
who succeed in getting appointed to the great 
political offices of the state, find the constant 
call made on their mental powers too much 
for their strength, and therefore succumb 
under the fatigue they are compelled to un- 
dergo, unless they retire into private life 
before their health is too much undermined. 
They are forced to sacrifice the nutritive 
powers of the body to obtain sufficient ac- 
tivity of mind, and this of course weakens the 
frame, and very shortly induces disease. The 
time will come when people will not run so 
inconsiderately as at present after appoint- 
ments, before they are satisfied they possess 
the natural strength necessary to endure the 
fatigues attached to them. These observations 
do not, however, apply solely to persons hold- 
ing political appointments, but to nearly all 



RULES FOR DIET. 173 

the middle classes in this country, more than 
half of whom are brought into a state of de- 
bility and disease by making greater mental 
exertions than their strength will allow; to 
do which they are compelled to live in a 
manner unfavourable to nutrition. They suffer 
too much from anxiety of mind, they fre- 
quently breathe a contaminated atmosphere, 
they lead too sedentary a life, and keep the 
body for many hours in postures which im- 
pede the circulation of the blood and the 
admission of air into the lungs, and very 
generally their food is improper both in 
quantity and quality. The extent to which 
disease might be diminished would be ex- 
traordinary, if these people would only avoid 
the conditions by which they are surrounded, 
that are most likely to act prejudicially on 
the health. 

Having pointed out the impossibility of 
obtaining full vigour of system by living in 
too abstemious a manner, it is now necessary 
to describe some of the most injurious effects 
of an excess of food. In the former case, the 



174 RULES FOR DIET. 






vital powers are usually too much concentrated 
on the nervous system, in the latter they are 
all directed to the stomach. The effect of 
over-eating generally causes excess of develop- 
ment of the adipose tissue, and of the organs 
of locomotion, by which the bulk of the body 
is materially increased ; though sometimes 
great eaters, in whom assimilation is imper- 
fectly performed, are of a very spare habit. 
Redundance of food is most hurtful to those 
persons who lead an inactive life, for when 
combined with violent exercise, it may be 
supported for some time without producing 
very injurious consequences, though too long 
a continuance of its use is always followed by 
disease. Prize-fighters, whilst training, sub- 
ject themselves to a diet consisting chiefly of 
animal food broiled, which is the process of 
cookery that most completely prevents the 
escape of its nutritious juices. They live 
mostly on beef very much underdone, legs of 
fowls, and bread ; they drink very little, 
limiting themselves to a small quantity of 
ale daily, because fluids favour the deposition 



RULES FOR DIET. 175 

of adipose matter in the muscles, and prevent 
their acquiring solidity and hardness. Whilst 
adopting this routine of diet, they take a great 
deal of violent exercise, practise running up hills 
to improve their wind, lie on hard beds at 
night, and allow themselves but little sleep. 
The above plan, adhered to for a month or 
six weeks, greatly increases the vigour of the 
body, and brings it, as it is technically termed, 
" to the height of its condition." It is not, 
however, healthy, being too stimulating, and 
if persisted in, would invariably cause illness. 
Analogous plans of regimen produce similar 
results in animals, as game-cocks and race- 
horses. In these cases all the powers of the 
system are called into operation to favour 
the development of the muscular and osseous 
systems, which is more perfectly effected 
in proportion as the other organs of the body 
are kept in a state of inactivity. A highly 
nutritious diet, combined with a good deal 
of exercise, usually produces a plethoric state 
of body, rendering it liable to inflammatory 
attacks, affections of the heart and organs of 



176 RULES FOR DIET. 

the circulation, and apoplexy. Without ex 
ercise, it is far more injurious, and produces 
still more numerous derangements of the 
system. All enormous eaters impose too ar- 
duous a task upon the animal functions, 
because excess of nutriment over-stimulates 
the organs of the body, in consequence of 
which the vital principle gradually becomes 
fatigued and exhausted. As long as the con- 
stitution has strength to bear this course of 
life, the individuals who follow it, instead of 
appearing to suffer from it, seem, from their 
fine florid appearance and fulness of form, 
to enjoy the most robust health. Such per- 
sons, however, are often standing as it were 
on the brink of a precipice, for the smallest 
graze or scratch of the skin is apt to produce 
sores which become both tedious and dan- 
gerous. The predisposition in such pam- 
pered bodies to disease is so great, that the 
slightest attack of inflammation of the lungs 
or digestive organs often resists all curative 
attempts and proves fatal. How many in- 
dividuals are there, who are indebted to their 



RULES FOR DIET. i 77 

bad digestion for a comparatively good state 
of health ! When such persons are thrown 
among the luxurious feasting which abounds 
in this vast city, they are compelled by the 
weakness of their stomachs to be abstemious, 
and to eat but moderately of the numerous 
dainties set before them ; for they know, if 
they were once to partake profusely of them, 
they would certainly be ill afterwards. Such 
persons are often considered by their acquaint- 
ances to be poor weakly creatures, who are 
sure not to live long, because they cannot 
eat anything. These ailing people, however, 
manage to live longer than is expected, and 
they are often surprised to hear occasionally 
of the death of some of their most robust 
and healthy-looking acquaintances, who could 
eat anything, undergo all kinds of fatigue, 
and brave all weathers, without being any the 
worse. Indifferent health in civilized society 
often preserves life, while robust health is 
frequently the cause of death. It must not 
be supposed that bad health is held up here 
as an advantage : it is only intended to show 

i 3 



178 RULES FOR DIET. 

that a weakly constitution is often so far 
advantageous, inasmuch as it compels us 
to practise that care and self-denial so con- 
ducive to health, which we perhaps should 
not do if we were robust and strong. But 
when once persons have acquired the habit 
of indulging themselves in too luxurious a 
diet, the sudden adoption of a frugal manner 
of living often produces very serious con- 
sequences; and therefore any change to a 
more frugal plan of living, under these cir- 
cumstances, should be made with care, and 
by degrees. An eminent metropolitan sur- 
geon, now deceased, who was much addicted 
to the pleasures of the table, set out, some 
years ago, for Scotland, in one of the Leith 
packets, which sailed from the river. He 
experienced exceedingly bad weather during 
the voyage, which caused it to be prolonged 
so much beyond the ordinary time required 
for its performance, that the stock of provi- 
sions for the passengers was exhausted ; on 
which account they were obliged to subsist 
for nearly three weeks on the salt junk, and 



RULES FOR DIET. 179 

other coarse sorts of food, provided for the 
crew. This kind of living, so different from 
what he had been accustomed to, soon caused 
him to be very ill, and though every care 
was taken of him by his medical friends at 
Edinburgh, when he reached that city, seve- 
ral years elapsed before his health was com- 
pletely reinstated. Excess of food probably 
produces effects on the body somewhat ana- 
logous to those which result from the too 
liberal use of wine and spirits, for if persons 
who have drank freely are too suddenly de- 
prived of the artificial stimuli to which they 
have been long accustomed, they very fre- 
quently become ill. Extensive wounds, which 
in most cases are attended with so much ten- 
dency to excessive inflammation, that the use 
of any article of diet of an exciting nature 
will produce fatal results, very often will not 
heal in people who are habitual drunkards 
and bon-vivans, unless wine, spirits, or stimu- 
lating food are allowed them in rather liberal 
quantities. The correctness of this assertion 



180 RULES FOR DIET. 

is very clearly shown by the following cases, 
recorded by the celebrated Dr. Monro of 
Edinburgh. 

" A cook in an eating-house quarrelling 
with a maid servant, she struck him with a large 
knife, and cut through a great share of the 
right prima and septum of the nostrils, so that 
it hung down towards his lip. He had bled a 
long time, and was very faint by loss of blood 
before his nose was stitched. His wife was 
allowed to give him some white wine among 
the water-gruel he was ordered to drink, or to 
make some sack- whey for him. He however 
continued very low and faint, with sickness at 
the stomach and headache, for three days, till 
his wife told me his ordinary way of living 
was to drink a good deal of ale, wine, and 
brandy every day ; and unless I would allow 
her to give him more and stronger liquor, 
she did not expect he would recover. I 
did not forbid her, which she interpreted 
into allowance, and gave a gill, or four ounces 
of brandy, with some of our ordinary ale. 



RULES FOR DIET. 181 

He was much better next day, and with this 
dose every day, recovered daily till he was 
quite well." 

" A man having broken the bones of his 
leg, after the fracture was reduced I ordered 
him to have no drink given him except water 
and milk, water-gruel, or such like. He did 
not sleep well in the night. Next morning I 
found his pulse very quick, but low, and with 
complaints of pain in the head, thirst, &c. 
Imagining some drunken companions I saw 
come to visit him had given him some strong 
liquors, I ordered him to be more strictly 
watched by such who I was sure would obey 
me, and he was kept to the low diet rigorously. 
He did not however seem relieved at night ; 
slept none all night, and next morning he was 
altogether delirious, got out of bed, kicked 
away the box in which his leg had been put, 
his tendons were starting, and he scarce knew 
any person, his pulse at the same time inter- 
mitting, and being very slow. One then pre- 
sent, whom I knew to be a very complete 
drunkard of the lowest class, assured me I would 



182 RULES FOR DIET. 

kill him if I did not allow him ale and brandy, 
for that the patient had for several years out- 
done him in irregular living. T consented to 
allow a little. That night he was much better, 
and next morning was altogether free of fever, 
delirium, &c, when they acknowledged he 
had got a Scots quart of ale and a gill of 
brandy the preceding day, which had made 
him sleep well and sound. This daily allow- 
ance of ale and brandy, then, he had all the 
time of his cure, which went afterwards on 
without the least accident." 

" A distiller of wine at the West port, sitting 
upon the edge of the tub into which the boil- 
ing remains of a stillful of wine had been put, 
slid back into it, by which his hips, &c. were 
miserably burnt, the skin of the whole parts 
turning black and hard. I endeavoured to 
procure a suppuration by scarification, suppu- 
rating ointments, and poultices, and as his 
pulse was quick, ordered him to be blooded 
and kept on a low diet. Next day he was 
much dispirited, with great anxiety, and with 
a low, quick pulse. The third day he was 



RULES FOR DIET. 183 

near as bad as what I mentioned the former 
patients to have been, when his wife insisted 
to be allowed to give him some of the spirits 
he distilled, which he got, and soon became 
better, the suppuration coming on in the in- 
teguments, which cured very well; his wife 
near the end of the cure acknowledging she 
had given him a mutchkin, or pound of spirits 
every day." 

A very hearty meal may produce sudden 
and dangerous effects. Indigestions are fre- 
quently fatal to patients in our hospitals. All 
persons who have been in the habit of visiting 
the sick in those establishments must have 
occasionally observed some extensive wounds 
which were doing extremely well, appearing 
very healthy, and likely to heal, suddenly ac- 
quire a very different character, and look pale, 
flabby, and unhealthy, in consequence of the 
patients affected with them having been en- 
abled to overload their stomachs, through the 
misapplied kindness of their friends, who 
brought them some improper food by stealth. 
Indigestions in such persons are sometimes 



184 



RULES FOR DIET. 



attended with much more fatal consequences, 
for they often cause great oppression at the 
stomach, after which a difficulty of breathing 
comes on, accompanied with pain in the side ; 
the blood accumulates in the lungs, a rattle in 
the throat ensues, and the patient dies of suffo- 
cation at the end of two or three days, or in 
less than twenty-four hours. The author some 
years ago had a case of this kind, which dis- 
tressed him exceedingly : it was that of a man 
whose leg he had amputated. The stump had 
almost healed, and was doing so extremely 
well that no one could have entertained the 
remotest doubt of his complete recovery. In 
the middle of one night, however, the unfor- 
tunate man was attacked with the kind of 
congestion just alluded to, which was attended 
with dreadful pain in the chest about the 
heart; and notwithstanding the almost imme- 
diate administration of the remedies most likely 
to be beneficial, he died early the next morn- 
ing. It appeared afterwards that his friends, 
considering him to be nearly well, had, out of 
mistaken kindness, brought him the preceding 



RULES FOR DIET. 185 

afternoon some hot roasted pork, of which he 
had eaten a good deal, and thus suddenly 
overloaded his stomach, which had been for 
some time unaccustomed to anything but a 
light and moderate regimen. The relation of 
this case may deter persons who unfortunately 
have to undergo a dangerous surgical opera- 
tion from making an immoderate meal of 
stimulating food, which, under such circum- 
stances, it is shown is likely to produce the 
most serious consequences. 

Excess of food should certainly be particu- 
larly avoided, but sometimes it is difficult to 
determine what excess of food consists in, for 
what is too stimulating a diet for one consti- 
tution is not sufficiently nutritious for another. 
The art of preserving and restoring the vigour 
of the system consists in ascertaining the 
proper quantity and the kind of nutritious 
matter most suited to every instance in which 
the health is deranged. To say that this 
article of food is indigestible, and the other is 
digestible, is to say nothing, for almost all 
sorts of food are digestible when eaten in 



136 RULES FOR DIET. 






moderation by persons in health ; and to pro- 
hibit the use of a large class of articles of diet 
is to limit the variety of alimentary matter, 
which always ought to be avoided as much as 
possible, for nothing favours the development 
of the body more, and enables it to be per- 
formed with less fatigue of the vital powers, 
than varying the food from day to day. Peo- 
ple who are robust should avoid eating too 
frequently; others in whom the appetite is 
bad, and the constitution is weakly, should 
embrace all proper opportunities of supplying 
the system with nutritious matter. The pro- 
priety of this plan has often been manifest to 
the author in different families consisting of 
several children, many of whom can assimilate 
anything they eat, and always enjoy good 
health, whilst some of their brothers or sisters, 
who are supplied with precisely the same food, 
are weak, sickly, and have little power of 
causing nutrition to be effected. Nothing 
will more strongly illustrate this point than 
the following history of the case of a little girl, 
who was for some time under the author's care, 



RULES FOR DIET. 187 

and it is only the type of many others which 
have come under his notice. A young girl 
about six years of age had from infancy been 
a weakly child, was of a highly nervous tem- 
perament, tall for her age, and of slim, delicate 
make. She was extremely excitable, slept 
badly, had too much muscular activity for her 
strength, in consequence of which she seldom 
remained quiet; a delicate appetite, scanty 
secretions, particularly of the perspiratory 
fluids; was generally troubled with a slight 
cough in the winter, her pulse was rapid, skin 
hot and exceedingly dry, being covered with 
a sort of scurf on those parts of the body de- 
fended by the clothing from the air, but on 
the hands and face presenting a cracked ap- 
pearance like chaps. This child's complaint 
had been considered to result from indigestion, 
and therefore she had been allowed only a 
very small quantity of the plainest food, and 
no stimulants. With this treatment her symp- 
toms became aggravated, when she was placed 
under the author's care. A complete alter- 
ation was now made in her way of living, for 



188 RULES FOR DIET. 






she was allowed as generous a diet as she 
could bear. She had an egg, meat, or milk 
with bread for breakfast ; sago, arrow-root, or 
jelly for luncheon ; meat for dinner, particu- 
larly fowls, rabbits, and light viands of that 
description ; arrow-root or sago with milk for 
supper. At dinner she drank bitter ale, and 
occasionally a little port wine. In two months 
after the adoption of this plan her health had 
considerably improved, she was less irritable, 
slept better, had gained strength, her appetite 
was improved, and when the warm weather 
commenced, for the first time since she was 
born, a slight moisture was perceptible on the 
skin, which gradually lost its chapped appear- 
ance, and at the end of the following summer 
became quite smooth and soft. Since then, 
by persisting in a generous diet, her health 
has become completely established. This was 
one of those cases which require as much food 
as possible to be given, always taking care the 
quantity shall not be so great as to cause in- 
digestion, and is a striking instance of the 
advantages a liberal diet can produce when 



PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 189 

given with discretion. It would be exceedingly 
improper to treat all children in this manner, 
as clearly appeared in the instance of the 
younger sister of the child whose case has 
just been detailed, and who enjoyed a consti- 
tution of quite an opposite description. In- 
stead of requiring stimulating food, the plainest 
diet was most favourable to her health. If 
ever she partook of any concentrated kinds 
of food she became indisposed ; beer and wine 
always made her ill, and therefore she drank 
nothing but water. As long as she was con- 
fined to very simple food, and took her meals 
at rather long intervals, she enjoyed perfect 
health. Attention to diet will not only cure 
many disorders, but very frequently gives us the 
power of preventing the occurrence of disease 
at all. Experience has proved that laws to 
prevent crime are more likely to suppress its 
commission than the severest punishment of it. 
The same reasoning holds good with disease. 
It is far better that disease should be pre- 
vented than that it should be cured; in fact 
the occurrence of disease only proves the de- 



190 PREVENTION OF DISEASE, 

feet of the means which have been employed 
for preserving the health. No disease can be 
cured without injury to the health, for the 
remedies employed for this purpose always 
cause some excessive and unnatural action in 
the body, which lessens its power. If people 
would endeavour to ascertain how they may 
keep themselves free from disease — a kind of 
knowledge, judging from their conduct, they 
seem to be lamentably deficient in — they might 
very frequently escape even the pain and 
anxiety attending complaints that are ulti- 
mately cured. Benevolent individuals have 
earned the gratitude of thousands by founding 
hospitals, which confer the most important 
benefits on the sick. At the same time philan- 
thropists do not seem to be aware that they 
would secure the poor much greater immunity 
from disease if, instead of establishing hospitals 
only, they were also to found charities for the 
purpose of affording the humblest classes of 
society the means of obtaining occasional re- 
laxation and absence from many of their occu- 
pations, which, when persisted in continually, 



PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 191 

almost inevitably, from their unhealthy nature, 
bring on illness. Let extensive plans be tried 
to prevent disease, and they will be found infi- 
nitely more advantageous than all which are 
at present adopted with a view to cure it. It 
is hoped these ideas may attract the attention 
of the benevolent, and that some attempt will 
be made ere long to set on foot arrangements 
for carrying them out, People would preserve 
their health much better, and live longer, if 
they would avoid the numerous causes likely 
to produce illness by which most of them are 
surrounded, instead of persisting, as at present, 
in living in a way which is very unhealthy 
until disease has made great inroads into their 
constitutions, and then making every exer- 
tion to get themselves cured. Whatever the 
wealthier classes may do, some time must 
elapse before any direct system will be adopted 
for endeavouring to prevent disease among the 
poor. But certainly it is much to be regretted 
that the governors of the principal hospitals in 
London, some of which possess endowments 
producing incomes of upwards of 50,000/. per 



192 PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 

annum, do not provide a place of residence for 
the patients in the country, during their con- 
valescence, instead of keeping them shut up, 
as at present, in the close air of an hospital in 
town. To guard those who are beginning to 
recover, after a severe illness, from the chance 
of a relapse, by securing to them the advan- 
tages of country air, must surely come quite 
within the scope of the intentions of the 
founders of those princely establishments, and 
the managers of them only do half their duty 
while they neglect to provide for so important 
an object. 

The heads of families who make a point of 
contributing handsomely to public medical 
charities, under the idea that their servants, 
and the poor in whom they take an interest, 
will be able when ill to procure the best 
medical and surgical assistance from the offi- 
cers of those establishments, would do more 
good by expending their money in a manner 
to secure such persons the means of desisting 
occasionally from their ordinary labours, and 
to remove from them as much as possible all 



PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 191 

external circumstances likely to be prejudicial 
to the health. People have constantly ex- 
hausted their ingenuity to devise plans for 
curing disease, without endeavouring to ascer- 
tain how its occurrence can be prevented ; 
and this in the face of the fact, that prophy- 
lactic remedies have conferred more striking 
and extended benefits on the human race than 
any others. The discovery of vaccination has 
saved, and will save, millions and millions 
from an untimely grave, though the most 
approved treatment of small-pox can boast of 
no such results; and could preventives be 
found for a few other equally serious dis- 
orders, the maladies the human race is liable to 
would be diminished to quite an unexpected ex- 
tent. A great many illnesses might be avoided 
altogether if people would only make a few 
sacrifices, and live in a manner a little more 
conducive to health than they do at present. 
Comparatively speaking, scarcely anything has 
been done with the view of guarding against 
disease. Latterly public attention has been a 
little directed to a few circumstances in Lon- 



194 PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 

don, which are likely to be prejudicial to the 
health/ The cholera in this respect has been 
of some advantage, for it has led to inquiries 
into the state of many of the worst-drained 
and worst-ventilated parts of the metropolis 
where fevers almost constantly prevail. Persons 
residing near a neighbourhood where malig- 
nant fevers are continually raging, though not 
attacked by them, are still living under circum- 
stances very likely to produce illness, and are 
therefore nearly as much interested in the 
removal of the causes of those fevers as the 
individuals who are the victims of them. The 
practice of burying the dead in cities cannot 
be too strongly reprehended. The formation 
of cemeteries without the town has begun to 
remedy this evil, but very imperfectly ; for 
though the rich are interred in them, the poor, 
and therefore the more numerous class, from 
motives of economy in most parishes, are still 
buried in the old burial-grounds within the 
city. The legislature ought to compel each 
union cither to procure a burial-ground for 
the poor in tiie suburbs, or contract with some 



PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 195 

company to provide one ; for until that is done 
the inhabitants of all large cities, and parti- 
cularly London, must continue to suffer from 
the bad effects produced by the exhalation of 
miasmal vapours constantly given out from 
the remains of the dead, which in some in- 
stances are not covered with a layer of earth a 
foot thick. If care were taken to remove the 
most obvious causes of disease in London, 
which could easily be done without either 
much trouble or expense, it might be ren- 
dered nearly as healthy as the country, if not 
quite as much so. The sewers, though still 
very imperfect, give the drainage upon the 
whole a degree of perfection not to be met 
with elsewhere ; and by carrying off the super- 
fluous water, prevent the decomposition of ve- 
getable and animal substances, which is always 
so much favoured by moisture. In this man- 
ner one principal cause of the generation of 
unwholesome miasma is almost completely ob- 
viated ; and if new streets were opened, many 
old ones widened, new parks formed, and the 

k2 



196 PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 

manufacturers were compelled by law to con- 
sume the smoke of their factories, which they 
ought to be made to do, the salubrity of 
London would be improved to an extraor- 
dinary extent. 

It generally happens that all things whose 
nature is unknown are supposed to possess 
much more extraordinary powers than can 
possibly belong to them. This is the case 
with the vital principle, which produces such 
inexplicable and extraordinary effects, that 
most persons imagine it is hardly influenced 
by external circumstances ; and that life will 
continue, and nutrition will be effected, under 
the most unfavourable conditions. For this 
reason people seldom inquire whether they 
are surrounded or not by causes likely to pro- 
duce indisposition until they get ill; for a 
common opinion prevails that a good consti- 
tution will bear anything : but the physician 
knows that nothing is so easy as to ruin a fine 
constitution, even when what is called com- 
mon care is taken of the health. Remarks 






PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 197 

are frequently made that the London trades- 
people, who go so often to the sea-coast by 
steam-boats, or make short journeys into the 
country by the rail-roads, must sadly neglect 
their affairs by being absent so much from 
their shops. All this is probably very true; 
but it is equally certain that many a man pre- 
serves his health by these excursions; and 
though he may lose a little by them at the 
time, the change of air and intermission from 
mental exertion they afford him, often invi- 
gorate his constitution in such a manner, that 
with a few such periodical relaxations every two 
or three months, he can go on attending to his 
business for years without being attacked with 
illness; whereas if he were to continue shut 
up in his counting-house unremittingly in the 
close atmosphere of London all the year round, 
he would run the risk of being laid up at the 
end of that period with some serious com- 
plaint, which he might never get rid of. In- 
stead, then, of deprecating such expeditions, 
they ought, if possible, to be made more fre- 



198 



NUTRITION. 



quently than they are ; for it is much better 
economy to spend a little money in preserving 
the health, than to accumulate it for the pur- 
pose of paying for medicines to cure disease. 

NUTRITION. 

A detailed account having been given of the 
nature and effects of the substances subservient 
to the development of the body, that are intro- 
duced into it through the organs of digestion, 
it will now be proper to offer some obser- 
vations on the manner in which nutrition is 
effected. Alimentary matter by itself has no 
power of effecting the growth of the body, and 
can only be rendered fit for this purpose by 
subjection to the process of digestion. To 
enter into an account of that function would 
be foreign to the object of the present work ; 
and therefore it will be sufficient to mention 
that during the time that the food remains in 
the stomach and intestinal tube, it undergoes 
a variety of changes produced by the influence 
of the contact, and of the secretions of the 



NUTRITION. 199 

glands of those organs, the result of which is 
to cause the separation of the nutritious part 
of the food from that which is not nutritious. 
After this separation has taken place, the nu- 
tritious portions of the alimentary mass, as 
the chyle, &c, are admitted into the organs of 
the circulation in the following manner. The 
lacteals convey the chyle from the intestines 
up to the left shoulder, and pour it into the 
interior of the left subclavian vein, from which 
it soon flows down to the heart. The veins of 
the intestinal canal receive by their extremi- 
ties, which open into that tube, several salts, 
and many substances possessing odoriferous 
properties, contained in the food : these are then 
carried up to the liver, through which they 
are first made to pass and afterwards trans- 
mitted to the heart. In this way, after each 
successive introduction of food into the body, 
a fresh addition of matter is made to the blood ; 
for which reason this fluid is able to furnish 
the substances necessary for the growth and 
development of the different organs. When 
the great variety of the physical characters 



200 NUTRITION. 

presented by the numerous tissues is consi- 
dered, it is obvious that any fluid capable of 
affording materials for the formation and nou- 
rishment of all of them must be of a very 
compound nature. For some parts of the body 
are harder than the densest marble, as the 
enamel of the teeth ; others are perfectly trans- 
parent, like the purest crystal, as the humours 
of the eye ; man} T are quite colourless, and 
have no contractility, as the tendons and liga- 
ments ; whilst others, as the muscles, are of a 
deep red hue, and possess such powerful con- 
tractile powers, that though of inconsiderable 
size themselves, they can exert a force equal 
to many hundred pounds in weight; a few, 
as the hair and nails, are so insensible that 
they may be divided without our perceiving 
it ; and lastly, some parts of the brain and 
nervous system are so exquisitely sensitive, 
that the slightest pressure upon them suffices 
to produce the immediate death of the indi- 
vidual. Chemical analysis shows that the dif- 
ferent parts of the body contain the following 
fifteen elementary substances: — 



met with principally in the teeth and 
bones. 



NUTRITION. 201 

1. Oxygen 

2. Hydrogen 

3. Carbon 

4. Nitrogen 

(met with principally in the hair, albu- 

5. Sulphur { 

( men, and brain. 

„ , f met with principally in the bones, teeth. 

6. Phosphorus \ . * J ' 

1 and brain. 

7. Chlorine 

8. Fluor 

9. Potassium 

10. Sodium 

11. Calcium 

12. Magnesium \ 

13. Manganese ) 

,.,-,.,.. } found in the hair. 

14. ailicium J 

, J found in the blood, pigmentum nigrum, 

{ and crystalline lens. 

According to the subjoined analysis by Le 
Cann, all the above elements are found in the 
blood, with the exception of one or two, but 
these most probably also exist in it ; and their 
not having been yet detected is rather to be 
referred to the present imperfect state of che- 
mical science than to their being actually 

wanting. 

k 3 



202 



NUTRITION. 



Composition of the Blood, according to Le Cann. 


Water ..... 


786-500 


Albumen . . . . 


69-415 


Fibrin . . 


3-565 


Colouring matter .... 


119-626 


Crys tall iz able fatty matter 


4-300 


Oily matter .... 


2*270 


Extractive matter soluble in alcohol . 


1-920 


Albumen combined with soda 


2-010 


Chloruret of sodium and potassium, alkaline 




phosphates, sulphates, and carbonates 


7'304 


Subcarbonate of lime and magnesia, phosphates 




of lime, magnesia, and iron, peroxide of 




iron .... 


1-414 


Loss ..... 


2-586 



1000 

The above table shows, that, besides the 
greater number of the elementary substances 
composing the body, the blood also contains 
several of the proximate principles of the differ- 
ent tissues : as albumen, which is the basis of 
membrane; fibrin, the basis of muscle ; and fatty 
matter, the basis of nerve and brain. The 
blood, independently of being such a remark- 
ably compound fluid, possesses other properties 



NUTRITION, 203 

which render it admirably fitted for the pur- 
poses of nutrition. As long as it is kept in a 
state of motion, it preserves its liquidity ; but if 
allowed to remain for a short time in a state of 
repose, it divides into two portions, one possess- 
ing considerable solidity called the coagulum 9 
and another of a fluid nature called the serum. 
This separation is most commonly seen in 
blood which has been extracted from the arm, 
and allowed to remain in a state of rest ; but 
when blood is stirred for some time after it 
has been drawn, it retains its fluid state. 
Several diseases also deprive the blood of its 
power of coagulation. Many unprofessional 
persons imagine the coagulation of the blood 
occurs out of the body only, but this is not 
the case, for it coagulates both in the body 
and out of it, if kept free from motion. The 
surgeon avails himself of this property to pro- 
duce obliteration of the canals in blood-vessels, 
as in cases of aneurism, a disease which con- 
sists in the gradual bursting of the coats of an 
artery, A ligature, in these cases, is applied 
round the vessel affected, which of course pre- 



204 



NUTRITION. 



vents the blood flowing through it. The blood 
close to the ligature now remaining in a state 
of rest coagulates ; the fluid part or serum is 
absorbed, whilst the solid coagulum left in the 
vessel constitutes a natural plug, which fills up 
the passage through it. In a short time blood- 
vessels make their appearance in this coagulum, 
connect it to the coats of the artery, and gra- 
dually change it into a part of the living body. 
In this way the hollow artery is converted into 
a solid cord, the passage through it being 
completely obliterated. The facility with which 
the solid part of the blood is separated, under 
these circumstances, from the liquid, and made 
to become part of the body itself, shows how 
admirably this fluid is adapted for nutrition. 
Some microscopists maintain that during the 
time coagulation is going on, the globules in 
the blood may be seen arranging themselves 
with singular regularity in linear series, which 
may likewise be of great aid to the nutritive 
process. That the blood is the source from 
which the organs of the body procure the ele- 
ments of which they are composed is quite cer- 



NUTRITION. 205 

tain ; but how it happens that each part, having 
such a compound fluid presented to it in a 
mass, should be able to select those elements 
exclusively which are necessary for its own 
development, and permit them alone to pass 
into, and be deposited in, its substance or pa- 
renchyma, whilst all the others are prevented 
from doing so, is still a mystery. Though the 
laws by which this wonderful process is regu- 
lated are unknown, the following conditions 
are necessary for its being effected. Each of 
the more complicated organs in the higher 
animals is furnished with an artery, a vein, 
an absorbent, and a nerve. The artery carries 
arterial blood to the part, to supply it with 
fresh matter ; but the quantity of blood is more 
than is actually requisite, which renders it ne- 
cessary the superfluity should be got rid of. 
This is effected by the vein which receives the 
refuse of the arterial blood, and carries it back 
again to the heart, after it has circulated 
through the organ, to which it was brought by 
the artery. Nutrition, however, is not per- 
formed merely by an addition of fresh matter 



206 



NUTRITION. 






to an organ, but, generally speaking, a continual 
change is going on in it, the old particles of 
which it is composed being removed, and fresh 
ones being deposited in their place. The 
carrying away the old particles is assigned to 
vessels called absorbents, which are found in a 
great many organs, though in some parts none 
of these vessels are apparent, and then the re- 
moval of the old particles is effected by the 
veins. It has been mentioned that, besides 
an artery, a vein, and an absorbent being ne- 
cessary for nutrition, a nerve is likewise requi- 
site. The probable use of the nerve is to regu- 
late the entrance of the different elements of 
the blood into the substance of the organ ; so 
that those only which are proper for its deve- 
lopment shall be allowed to pass into its in- 
timate structure. This supposed regulating 
power of the nerve partly explains how each 
or^an is enabled to select from the blood those 
elements only which are proper for its parti- 
cular composition. But, besides the influence 
of the nerve, the difference in the mechanical 
arrangement of the fibres and membranes be- 



NUTRITION. 207 

longing to the several tissues is another prin- 
cipal cause that some of the materials in the 
blood find their way into the most intricate por- 
tions of an organ, whilst others cannot pass 
into them. The existence of this difference is 
clearly proved by the results of the following 
experiments. When the arteries of the human 
body are injected with a solution of gelatine 
coloured with vermilion, the gelatine is often 
seen deposited without any colouring matter, 
round and between the convolutions of the 
brain ; whilst on both surfaces of the choroid 
membrane it will be found to have exuded in 
the same state as when injected into the body. 
This shows that the fibres of the cerebral mass 
must be arranged in meshes of a very different 
description to those of the choroid membrane ; 
for whilst the former allow the gelatine only 
to flow through them, the latter permit the ge- 
latine and vermilion to pass both together. 
Again, if linseed oil coloured with vermilion 
be used as an injection, the oil without any 
vermilion is often found in the great synovial 
capsules of the articulations, but it has not 



208 



NUTRITION. 



been seen to transude on the surface of the 
brain. Thus, though it was natural to expect 
that oil would pass where gelatine could, it 
does not do so ; and further, though oil in these 
cases has been found in the articulations, no 
gelatine has been met with there when used as 
an injection instead of oil. The various parts 
of the body may be compared to sieves with 
apertures of different sizes and forms, which 
will only allow particles of matter of corre- 
sponding dimensions and shapes to pass through 
them. In membranous parts the transmission 
of fluids is greatly influenced by their densities, 
which must be of the greatest consequence in 
nutrition ; since the cellular substance of which 
the membranes are chiefly composed pervades 
almost every part of the body, and constitutes 
one of the readiest means of communication 
between the different organs. To give unpro- 
fessional persons a correct notion of the physi- 
cal character of the tissue denominated cellular 
substance, they must be referred to the appear- 
ance it presents in veal which has been inflated 
by the butcher to make it have a plump ap- 



NUTRITION. 209 

pearance. It is seen collected in greatest 
abundance between the muscles and near the 
inflections of the large joints, in the form of a 
number of cells composed of layers of a delicate 
shining, silver membrane. These cells commu- 
nicate freely one with another, so that by forcing 
air into one of them, the whole of the cellular 
substance of the body may be inflated. In the 
human body, in cases of fracture of the ribs, 
which sometimes, by the protrusion of the sharp 
ends of the broken bones, causes a communi- 
cation to be established between the interior of 
the lungs and the internal surface of the skin 
covering the chest, part of the air drawn into 
the lungs during respiration finds its way from 
the interior of the chest into the cellular sub- 
stance under the skin which covers it, and 
passes rapidly from cell to cell till the whole 
body becomes inflated, presenting a most fright- 
ful and alarming appearance to those who are 
ignorant of the cause of it. In the same way 
the whole body often becomes cedematous in 
dropsy, on account of the facility with which 



210 



NUTRITION. 



the effused fluid flows from cell to cell in the 
cellular substance. 

Though the great freedom of communication 
between the cavities belonging to the cellular 
membrane allows substances of a gaseous or 
aqueous nature to be rapidly disseminated 
throughout the body, the peculiar manner in 
which this tissue is arranged permits them to 
pass only in certain directions ; which is of the 
greatest consequence to the health, for by this 
means the isolation of many of the most im- 
portant viscera is effected. To explain more 
fully how this happens, it is necessary to state 
that the cellular substance surrounds the mus- 
cles, tendons, arteries, veins, and nerves, with 
sheaths or cases, and therefore any fluid which 
finds its way into one of these sheaths is obliged 
to move in the direction they take ; and is thus 
prevented from being indiscriminately diffused 
throughout the intimate structure of the neigh- 
bouring organs, though it may pass through 
all the intricacies of the cellular membrane it- 
self. The surgeon, from a knowledge of this 



NUTRITION. 211 

fact, is able to predicate, when abscesses form 
in the body, at what part of the surface the 
matter they contain will present itself ; because 
he is aware it will gradually insinuate itself 
from the spot where it is first collected down 
those sheaths of the cellular membrane which 
are nearest to it, and into which it tends to be 
impelled by its own gravity. For instance, in 
what is called psoas or lumbar abscess, the 
matter is first effused in the loins ; but, on ac- 
count of the upright position of the body, it 
runs down the cellular sheaths of the tendons 
of the psoee muscles, till it meets with the cavity 
between the muscles at the upper part of the 
thigh, where it makes a lodgment, and soon 
becomes apparent through the skin. In this 
way the matter formed in the loins is prevented 
from being diffused among the viscera in the 
abdomen and pelvis, by being conveyed along 
the canals of the cellular membrane past them 
all, to the upper part of the lower extremity ; 
and this shows that though the cellular sub- 
stance allows of a very general communication 
between the remotest parts of the body, it 



212 



NUTRITION. 



sometimes has the effect of isolating a great 
many organs, and thus preserving them from 
injury. Many solid cylindrical bodies also, 
as needles, pins, fish-bones, &c, often travel 
through the cellular substance from one part 
of the human frame to the other without caus- 
ing any inconvenience. 

About two years ago, a lady who was under 
the author's professional care complained to 
him of a small swelling she had just observed 
about the middle of the breast-bone. Upon 
examination it presented the appearance of a 
large pimple with a minute black spot in the 
centre ; by gentle pressure a point like a thorn 
was made to protrude, which was easily grasped 
with a pair of forceps, and on being drawn out 
proved to belong to a needle much rusted. 
Upon inquiring how a needle came to get into 
this part of the body, the patient at first could 
not account for it ; but she shortly recollected 
that about three months before, when she was 
one day coming downstairs with some needles 
in her hand, she fell down. Most likely at that 
time one of them was forced, though she did 



NUTRITION. 213 

not feel it, into the arm or some other part of 
the body, whence it gradually travelled be- 
tween the meshes of the cellular substance to 
the chest, where some accidental cause must 
have altered its course, and directed it to that 
part of the surface of the skin at which it was 
detected. Needles and pins that are accident- 
ally swallowed often pass from one end of the 
body to the other without causing any incon- 
venience, for they seldom get into any of the 
important viscera, but travel through the small 
cavities in the cellular membrane, like the 
grass-creepers schoolboys amuse themselves 
with, which, when placed between the layers of 
clothing on the arm, gradually work themselves 
up from the wrist to the shoulder. 

The cellular substance, besides establishing 
such a general communication throughout the 
system, exercises a most important influence 
over nutrition, on account of being the chief 
component of the membranes. The pheno- 
mena attending the infiltration of fluids through 
membrane, first pointed out by Dutrochet, are 
extremely interesting, and must materially af- 



214 NUTRITION. 






feet the deposition in the different organs of the 
particular elementary substances of which they 
are composed. A piece of membrane, viewed 
under the highest power of the microscope, ap- 
pears to have a perfectly homogeneous texture, 
without pores of any kind; and yet, under 
certain conditions, water, milk, and other fluids, 
will pass through it without difficulty. When 
two fluids of different densities, having a mu- 
tual affinity for one another, are placed on the 
opposite sides of a piece of membrane, each will 
pass through it, and they will become inter- 
mixed. If a bladder containing a little treacle 
be immersed in water, a portion of the treacle 
will soon exude from the bladder, and a greater 
quantity of water will penetrate it, which pro- 
cesses will continue until the treacle and the 
water have acquired the same density. The 
lighter fluid, however, passes with greater ve- 
locity than the denser one through the bladder, 
which consequently becomes gradually dis- 
tended. Dutrochet, after he had discovered 
this singular property in membrane, constructed 
an apparatus called an end osmometer, by 



NUTRITION. 215 

which he ascertained that the passage, or the 
endosmose, as he has termed it, of water into a 
bladder containing a syrup three times its 
density, takes place with a force capable of 
supporting the weight of three atmospheres. 
This power, possessed by membranes, of caus- 
ing fluids to pass through them, must be of 
great importance to nutrition, and frequently 
be the cause why different substances find their 
way into the capillaries and become mixed 
with the blood. 

The endosmosis of gases is also very interest- 
ing. M. Faust, who has made many experi- 
ments on this subject, states that a bladder 
half filled with atmospheric air, placed under 
a jar containing carbonic acid gas, soon be- 
comes distended by the carbonic acid which 
penetrates it; and if the bladder which is 
placed in the carbonic acid contain hydrogen, 
it becomes distended to bursting. On the 
other hand, when the jar contains the lighter 
and the bladder the heavier gas, the bladder 
becomes collapsed. Different kinds of gases 
placed in contact with the two surfaces of a wet 



216 



NUTRITION. 



bladder, permeate it and become mixed toge- 
ther; and a gas placed externally to a moist 
bladder containing a fluid, will penetrate it and 
be absorbed by the fluid within. This explains 
how the atmospheric air which is introduced 
into the lungs during respiration can pass into 
the blood, though at the same time none of 
that fluid is able to escape. To avoid the pos- 
sibility of the account just given of endosmosis 
leading to a conclusion that fluids of differ- 
ent densities always become intermixed when 
brought into contact with the opposite surfaces 
of membranes in living beings, it will be pro- 
per to state that this does not appear to be the 
case. When the human body is alive no ex- 
udation takes place from the surface of the gall- 
bladder, but if this sac be examined a few 
hours after death, the bile will be found to 
have passed through it, and stained all the 
surrounding viscera. Indeed, if endosmosis 
were always to occur through membranous 
parts in living beings, it would be productive 
of the most serious consequences. In poison- 
ous animals the venom, to be ready for use, is 



NUTRITION. 217 

collected in considerable quantities in mem- 
branous sacs, where it lies innocuous to the 
animal itself. But this is only the case as long 
as it is confined to its natural reservoir, for, if 
any of it were to filter through the sides of 
the poison-bag, the animal to bite itself, or be 
artificially inoculated with its own venom, death 
would ensue. Nutrition is no doubt assisted 
by endosmosis ; but it is clear vitality greatly 
modifies, and sometimes altogether interrupts, 
this property belonging to membrane. 

Though nearly all the elements of the dif- 
ferent apparatus composing the body are found 
in the blood, yet on looking over the analysis 
of that fluid it will be seen to contain a great 
many substances, as iron, sulphur, phosphorus, 
&c, which are not ordinarily supposed to pos- 
sess nutritious properties, or considered to be 
used as articles of food. Some parts of the 
body also contain manganese. But these sub- 
stances are eaten in large quantities in combi- 
nation with other matter. Iron is found in 
almost all vegetables; it abounds particularly 
in indigo, assafcetida, olives, asparagus, garlic, 

L 



218 NUTRITION. 

and the grain and straw of the gramineae, 
and consequently is continually being in- 
troduced into the body with some of the 
most ordinary articles of diet ; so there is no 
difficulty in accounting for the presence of the 
great quantity of iron found in the blood, pig- 
mentum nigrum, and crystalline lens. Phos- 
phorus, which enters so largely into the com- 
position of the bones, teeth, and brain, is found 
in corn, chestnuts, onions, &c. Sulphur, met 
with in the hair, in albumen, in the brain, and 
nervous tissue in general, constituting a large 
proportion of the cerebral matter, exists in an 
acid state in orange-flowers, celery, hops, gin- 
ger, rice, assafcetida, &c, and in a pure state 
in the crucifera, particularly in mustard-seeds. 
Manganese has been discovered in considerable 
quantities in the vine, in figs, and in the grain 
and straw of wheat, which explains the source 
whence this metal, which is one of the chief 
elements of the hair, is procured. Most of the 
metals, with the exception of copper, and the 
other simple substances found in different kinds 
of vegetables used as food, have been ascer- 



NUTRITION. 



219 



tainecl to exist also in the organs of the body. 
It is very singular no copper has ever been de- 
tected in them ; and therefore it is difficult to 
understand what can become of it, for very 
considerable quantities of this metal are intro- 
duced into the body : it is very abundant in 
coffee, bark, corn, &c. 

M. Sarzeau calculates the coffee consumed 
annually by the French people contains 1400lbs. 
weight of copper, and the corn eaten by them 
91251bs. weight; making the total quantity of 
copper taken by the inhabitants of France every 
year in their food amount to 10 5 5251bs. weight. 
All the elements of the different organs of the 
body are to be found in the food, and the pro- 
cess of nutrition apparently consists in separat- 
ing them from the blood, modifying them, and 
depositing them respectively in those tissues of 
which they are found to be the component sub- 
stances. The most generally received opinion 
among physiologists is that no actual alteration 
of the elements of the food takes place ; that is 
to say, no conversion of simple substances from 
one into another ever occurs. The mass of 

l 2 



220 NUTRITION. 



evidence is unquestionably favourable to this 
doctrine, though at the same time the effects of 
the nutritive process are so wonderful, that, in- 
dependently of a few elements, as the fluor, 
calcium of the teeth, &c, and some compound 
substances, as the picromel of the bile, and the 
salivary matter, not having been yet discovered 
in the blood, there are other facts which almost 
warrant the suspicion that the nutritive power 
may exert a more extended influence on the 
nature of the elements of the food than is usu- 
ally admitted. 

The egg of a bird presents an example of a 
circumscribed quantity of nutritious matter, to 
which no fresh addition can be made during 
the period of incubation ; and yet the influences 
merely of an elevated temperature, of atmo- 
spheric air, and of the vital principle, cause 
the most extraordinary changes to take place in 
it. The development of the yolk and white 
presents some of the most remarkable pheno- 
mena manifested by the animated creation. 
Though both semi-fluid substances, apparently 
very simple in their nature, they are gradually 






NUTRITION. 221 

metamorphosed into a living being, provided 
with blood-vessels, nerves, muscles, tendons, 
cartilages, ligaments, membranes, bones, &c. 
The yellow yolk and the transparent colourless 
albumen are changed into blood and muscles 
which are red, into the liver which is brown, 
into gall which is green, into white and opaque 
nervous matter, into the horny beak and claws, 
into feathers offering every variety of hue, and 
into the hard and solid bones. The formation 
of the bones of the chick is the most difficult 
of explanation, for the quantity of solid matter 
they contain is much greater than that which 
exists in the yolk and white. It has been gene- 
rally supposed that the greater portion of the 
earths and salts composing the bones of the 
chick is procured from the shell ; but accord- 
ing to Dr. Prout, the weight of the shell is as 
great after incubation as it was before it. Now, 
if it be the fact that the earths and salts of the 
bones are not obtained from the shell, it is im- 
possible to account for their presence without 
admitting that, under certain circumstances, 
simple substances, or rather substances sup- 



222 NUTRITION. 

posed to be simple, may be converted one into 
another by vital action, which is not at all 
likely : but this subject is so intricate, and at 
present so little understood, that no satisfactory 
conclusion upon it can be come to before it has 
been further investigated. At the same time, 
in all attempts to determine the exact influence 
of the nutritive process on the elements com- 
posing organized beings, the remarkable effects 
produced by it ought to be kept constantly 
in view. 

Observe what occurs in the higher orders 
of living beings during the reproduction or re- 
storation of parts which have been injured or 
partially destroyed. When a bone in the hu- 
man body is fractured, the divided ends pour 
forth a quantity of new osseous matter, called 
"callus," which, though of a soft cartilaginous 
nature at first, gradually becomes hard, and 
unites the broken pieces together. In watch- 
ing the course of this beautiful process for re- 
pairing injuries to the solid scaffolding of the 
body, it is difficult to account for the sudden 
accumulation of bony substance which takes 



NUTRITION. 223 

place. The same kind of food is introduced 
into the body after as before the fracture, 
with this difference only, that after such an 
accident the diet is generally restricted, and 
stimulating articles of food are usually 
prohibited, to guard against the occurrence 
of inflammation. The composition of the 
blood therefore cannot be in any way altered, 
and yet, merely on account of the irrita- 
tion caused by the fracture, the production of 
an increased quantity of osseous substance in 
the system is seen to occur. It would be dif- 
ferent if experience had shown that the healing 
of the bones was facilitated by food consisting 
of osseous matter, but this is not the case ; the 
eating of bone does not afford any aid to the 
union of fractures whatever. Again, when the 
skin or parts of muscles are destroyed by ex- 
tensive burns, the reproduction and healing of 
these tissues is not facilitated by a diet consist- 
ing principally of skin or muscle, though it is 
quite evident an increased accumulation of 
these substances is effected in the body after 
they have been injured or partially destroyed. 



224 NUTRITION. 

These results at all events show that the nutri- 
tive process can, under peculiar circumstances, 
cause the deposition of the elements of the dif- 
ferent organs to be greatly augmented ; and to 
such an extent is this carried in some of the 
inferior animals, that whole apparatus which 
have been removed are entirely reproduced, as 
the claws of lobsters, the tails of lizards, &c. 

Food was defined at the commencement of 
this work to consist of all the ingesta taken 
into the body. The substances introduced in 
greatest abundance into the system are the gases 
forming atmospheric air: for it is calculated 
that, on the average, each individual intro- 
duces every four-and-twenty hours into his 
chest, for the performance of respiration, more 
than seventy hogsheads of air, and any 
interruption to its free admission into the 
lungs for more than two or three minutes 
causes a suspension of the vital powers. A 
considerable quantity of air is likewise ad- 
mitted into the body through the skin. The 
colour of the blue venous blood, by being 
brought into contact with the air in the lungs, 



NUTRITION. 225 

is changed to a bright red. Hering calcu- 
lates that the circulation of the blood through- 
out the body is completed once in about every 
two minutes, from which it follows that during 
the twenty-four hours the blood is changed 
from blue to red more than seven hundred 
and twenty times. This alteration in colour 
is merely the index that air has been brought 
into contact with the blood, but affords no 
explanation of its use to the animal economy. 
Air being introduced in such a continued 
manner to the circulating fluid in all living 
beings must be considered one of the great 
ingesta into the body, analogous to the essences 
of the food, which, it has already been shown, 
are conveyed in different ways from the 
digestive apparatus into the blood. Respira- 
tion, and the absorption of air by the skin, 
independently of the assistance they may 
afford to the production of animal heat, are 
the functions by which the gases entering 
into the composition of the different tissues 
of the body are admitted into the blood, and 
therefore are distinct means by which fresh 

l 3 



226 NUTRITION. 

materials are added to the system. Whether 
animals obtain any solid matter through re- 
spiration has not yet been actually ascertained, 
but probably they do so in very small quan- 
tities; for Ehrenberg has proved that the at- 
mosphere is often loaded with myriads of 
animalculse, which are continually raised into 
it with the vapours exhaled from the different 
collections of water on the earth. These 
minute creatures are wafted by the winds 
from one quarter of the globe to another, 
and therefore great numbers of them must be 
constantly introduced into the lungs in re- 
spiration. What their influence is, if they 
have any, on nutrition, is not known. There 
is a difficulty in admitting that any materials 
can be derived from the air for the growth of 
the body, because its weight is not percep- 
tibly increased by respiration, though this 
is removed when the extreme lightness of 
oxygen and nitrogen is considered, which are 
the gases absorbed by the blood whilst in 
the lungs. Carbonic acid, the only gas in 
atmospheric air which has much weight, is 



NUTRITION. 



227 



always exhaled during the respiration of ani- 
mals. It is, however, quite certain that some 
living beings do obtain solid matter for their 
development from the atmosphere. Many 
vegetables procure from it a much greater 
part of the materials of which they are com- 
posed than from any other source. When 
plants are exposed to the influence of light, 
the carbonic acid introduced into their leaves, 
which are in fact their lungs, is decomposed ; 
the oxygen which it contains being evolved, 
whilst the carbon is retained and made to 
become part and parcel of the plant itself. 
This fact explains several curious phenomena 
connected with the development of plants. 
Many vegetables grow, though supplied with 
scarcely anything but air and moisture. Van 
Helmont states, he planted a willow in an 
earthen pot full of earth, and that in five 
years the weight of the willow had increased 
150 lbs., whilst the weight of the earth had 
scarcely diminished, so that the greater por- 
tion of the elements composing the willow 
must have been obtained from some other 



228 NUTRITION. 

source than the soil in which it was planted. 
Vegetables have been found to grow in almost 
anything, as plaster, pure sand, saw-dust, 
cotton, tan, &c, though the most sterile mat- 
ters produce the smallest plants. The aloe, 
during the two or three months preceding its 
inflorescence, gives forth a stem for its flowers 
which attains a length of sixteen or eighteen 
feet. Ventenat mentions that an Agave fcetida 
which he watched grew twenty-two feet and 
a half in length between the 9th of August 
and the 25th of October, a period of seventy- 
seven days, which was at the rate of more 
than three inches a day. Some of those 
singular vegetables to which the name Phallus 
has been given grow three,, four, or five 
inches in less than half an hour. The Bo- 
vista giganteum, a species of fungus, acquires 
the size of a large gourd in one night. It is 
composed of cells united together by fibres. 
Each cell is said to measure about jfoth part 
of an inch in diameter, so that one of these 
plants of ordinary size must contain about 
48,000,000,000 of cells, and, supposing twelve 



NUTRITION. 229 

hours to have been necessary for its growth, 
the cells in it must have been produced at 
the rate of 4,000,000,000 an hour, or more 
than 66,000,000 a minute. The whole of 
this vast accession of fresh matter, particu- 
larly when it is recollected how much carbon 
plants contain, can hardly have been ob- 
tained in so short a time from the earth, but 
the greater part is most likely derived from 
the atmosphere. The proof that plants ob- 
tain materials for their development from 
the air is most strikingly afforded by those 
which continue to grow, though not in con- 
tact with the earth at all. The Protococcus 
nivalis, or red snow, vegetates upon eternal 
snows, which, on account of their thickness, 
render it impossible for this plant to obtain 
any nutritious matter from the earth, and 
therefore it can only derive the elements of 
which it is composed either from the snow 
on which it is found, or from the surrounding 
atmosphere.* The Epidendrum aerides, or 

* It is proper to mention that, lately, the globules of 



230 NUTRITION. 

air-plant, of South America, is still more 
dependent on air for the materials of which 
it is composed. This singular vegetable 
grows and flowers when suspended by a 
string to the ceiling of a room, and the 
South Americans hang it about the apart- 
ments of their houses as an ornament. To 
show how perfectly it is independent of any 
soil for its growth, Sir Woodbine Parish 
mentions that the windows of the houses in 
Buenos Ay res are generally furnished with 
large iron gratings, to protect the inhabitants 
from infractions of the mobs during the fre- 
quent civil commotions which occur in that 
city ; and that these air-plants may be seen 
growing and flowering on the iron bars of 
these gratings with the greatest luxuriance. 
It is impossible they can obtain any nourish- 
ment from the iron to which they are attached, 
so they must procure it from the air. 

Living beings, then, obtain the elements 



the red snow have been considered by some naturalists 
to be the ova of a species of rotifer. 



NUTRITION. 231 

composing their bodies from substances which 
pass into the circulating fluid, from the organs 
of digestion, and from the organs of respira- 
tion. The healthy development of the sys- 
tem, therefore, is dependent upon the nature 
of those substances ; which ^hows that, in 
order to preserve the health, it is not only 
necessary to take care and procure alimentary 
substances of a good quality and wholesome 
description, but it is also requisite that an 
ample supply of pure air should be obtained 
likewise. 



FINIS. 









/ 



INDEX 



Abdomen, 40 

Abscesses, 211 

Abyssinia, 17, 26, 46 

Accoucheur, 35 

Achilles, 100 

Acids, 157 

Acorns, 54 

Adders, 20 

Agamemnon, 114 

Agave foetida, 228 

Air, absorption of, 225 

Air, atmospheric, 224, 227 

Air-plant, 230 

Alaric, 70 

Albumen, 6 

Alcohol, 87, 151 

Alexander the Great, 63, 114 

Alica, dish, 65 

Almond, 54, 145 

Aloe, 228 

Altilia sumena, 122 

America, 16 

American Indians, 20 

Amphila, 17 

Amputated leg, 184^ 

Anaconda, 20 

Aneurism, 203 

Angermanland, 47 

Animal food, 2, 3, 126 

Animals taken as food, 10 

Animalculae, 226 

Animal oils, 40 

Anthelminthic, 74 

Anthropophagi, 43 

Antimony, 151 

Ants, 26 

Aphis, 61 

Aphrodisiac, 18 

Apicius, 101 

Apollonia, 51 

Apples, Hesperidean, 52 



Arabia, 26, 46 
Arabs, 12, 132 
Arrack, 87 
Aracu, ib. 

Aristocracy, young, 139 
Armadillo, 15 
Armour, ancient, 139 
Arrow-root, 58 
Asia, East of, 31 
Assafcetida, 68 § 
Athenseus, 100 
Augustus, 101 
Auk, 18 

Australia, 16, 36, 47 
Autenrieth, 48 
Azara, 48 

Badgers, 15 

Bahamas, 20 

Baker, 44 

Banks, Sir Joseph, 13 

Banyan-days, 164 

Barbary, 43, 46 

Bark, ib. 

Barley, 47, 49, 145 

Bassia butyracea, 42 

Bears, 15 

Beavers, ib. 

Beech, 42, 48 

Beef-tea, 5 

Beer, 90 

Beet-root, 60, 64 

Benjamin, 114 

Berkeley, 28 

Biscay, Bay of, 15 

Birch, 48 

Birds, 16 

Bitters, 68, 70 

Blood, 33, 199 

Blood, composition of, 202 

Blubber, 39 



234 



INDEX. 



Boas, 20 

Boerhaave, 85 

Boiled water, 79 

Bones, fracture of, 222 

Boone, 73 

Boori, 77 

Bouillon, 5 

Boulogne, Bois de, 20 

Bovista giganteum, 228 

Bradypus melanotus, 15 

Brahmins, 132 

Brain, excessive activity of, 170 

Brandy, 93 

Brazil, 26, 47 

Brazilians, 15 

Bread, 161 

Britain, inhabitants of, 44 

Bruce, 15 

Buenos Avres, 47 

Bull-frog, 20 

Butter, 40 

Butter- tree, 42 

Cabbages, 145 
Caffres, 15, 18, 26 
Calf, 29 
Calf's head, 8 
Caligula, 104 
Calomel, 151 
Callus, 222 
Camel's flesh, 11 
Camel'sheels, 15 
Canada, 16 
Canary Islands, 46 
Cancer, 33 
Candles, 39 
Cannibalism, 43 
Cape of Good Hope, 46 
Capsicum, 69 
Carbonic acid, 227 
Cardamoms, 69 
Cardinal de ltetz, 115 
Caripe, 40 

Case in which too Little food - 
taken, 168 

B bread, 59 
Cass i qui aire, 26 
Cassowary, 18 
Castor-oil, 42 
Catamenia, 43 



Caterpillar, 26' 

Caucasian race, 141 

Cauliflowers, 145 

Cause of too little food being taken, 

169 
Celery, 145 

Cellular membrane, 208 
Cemeteries, 194 
Centipedes, 26 
Central America, 40 
Cerealea, 46 
Ceres, 50 
Cetacea, 39 
Chaff, 47 
Chalybeates, 153 
Charles II., 97 
Charles IX., 17 
Chenopodia?, 9 
Cherry-tree, 52, 145 
Chestnuts, 54 
Children, 33, 36 
Children's blood, 44 
Chili, 47 
China, 15, 18, 26 
Chinese, 11,13, 18,26,29,30 
Chlorosis, 153 
Cholera, 194 
Christ's Hospital, 163 
Chrysippus, 43 
Chyle, 199 
Cicero, 17 
Cinnamon, 69 
Circe, 43 

Circulation of the blood, 225 
Clay, edible, 64 
Cleopatra, 104 
Clouet, 129 
Cloves, 69 
Club-houses, 107 
Coaguluin, 202 
Cochin China, 14, 18 
Cod-fish, 25 
Coffee, 96 
Colchis, 16 
Coleworts, 1 15 

Combustion, spontaneous, 156 
Commodns, 10 1 
Common fowls, 17 
Condiments, 68 
Conquest, Dr., 37 



INDEX. 



235 



Constantinople, 97 

Constitution, shattered, 38 

Constitutional disorders, 33 

Consumption, 152 

Cook, Captain, 13, 157 

Cookery, 98 

Cooks, 106 

Copland, Dr., 61 

Copper, 218 

Cornaro, 165 

Costiveness, 153 

Cotta, 104 

Cow -tree, 31 

Crab, 145 

Cranes, 115 

Crocodiles, 20 

Crows, 115 

Crusades, 64 

Cumana, 46 

Curius, 101 

Curry, 70 

Cyclops, 43 

Cyprus, 89 

Darius, 89 

Denmark, 12 

De Witt, 44 

Diabetes, 153 

Dioecious plants, 116 

Diet, rules for, 160 

Difference between animals and 

vegetables, 2 
Dindon, 16 
Dinner, drink at, 83 
Diogenes, 43 
Dog-fish, 22 
Dogs, 12, 13 
Domitian, 23, 104 
Dormice, 122 
Dram-drinking, 156 
Drainage, 195 
Drink, 85 
Dropsy, 195 
Duchatelet, 12, 13 
Duck, 18, 

Dumeril, Professor, 20 
Dutrochet, 213 
Dzggtai, 12 

Earrings, 104 



Earths, edible, 6Q 

Earth-worm, 26, 67 

Eating, pleasure of, 125 

Echinodermata, 67 

Echinus, 22 

Edible frog, 20 

Egg, changes in, 220 

Eglintoun, Earl of, 139 

Egg-plant, 108 

Egypt, 14, 16, 26, 44, 46 

Egyptians, 11, 22 

Ehrenberg, 226 

Elements of animal substances, 2 

Elements of vegetable substances, ib. 

Elephants, 14 

Elm, 48 

Embryo of animals, 10 

Emetics, 122 

Emphysema, 209 

Emu, 18 

Endosmosis, 214 

English, 15,44 

Enormous eaters, 176 

Epidendrum aerides, 229 

Epilepsy, 92 

Ergot of rye, 151 

Esquimaux, 15, 18, 31, 39 

Europe, 10, 16, 26 

Europeans, 11 

Evenus, 99 

Excess of food, effects of, 173 

Extensive wounds, 179 

Eye, 200 

Fabius Gurges, 104 
Factories, 32 
Farina, 57 
Fashion, 37 
Fat, 38 

Fatted animals, 147 
Faust, M., 215 
Fermented liquors, 90 
Fernando Po, 11 
Fibrin, 4, 5 
Fig-tree, 53 
Fish, 21 
Fish-oil, 39 
Fish, putrid, 24 
Flamingoes, 122 
Flemings, 15 




236 



INDEX. 



Flesh-flies, 126 

Foie gras. 121, 147 

Food, definition of, 1 

Food containing hydrogen, 156 

Food containing oxygen, 157 

Food, interchange of, 137 

Food, medicinal effects of, 152 

Fordyce. Dr., 81 

Foster, Mr., 14 

Foxes, 15 

Foxglove, 151 

France, 16, 20 

Franklin, Dr., 24 

Frogs, 17, 20 

Fruit, 51 

Fuller "s-earth, 65 

Galen, 12, 13, 117 

Gall-bladder, 216 

Game, 9 

Game-cocks, 175 

Gamesters, 171 

Garlic, 68 

Garum, 121 

Gastric juice, 28 

Gauls, 41 

Geese, 14 

Gelatine. 7 

Geophagism, 64 

Germany, 20 

Ginger, 69 

Geese, 18 

Gluten, 55 

Goats, 14 

Gout, 92 

Graces, 90 

Grasshoppers. 26 

Gravel, 92, 154 

Gravel, influence of diet on, 155 

Grazing animals, 117 

Greeks, 41 

Greek heroes, 22 

Greenlanders, 15, 26 

Green sickness, 153 

Grub, 26 

Guacharo, 40 

Gum, 57 

Habitual drunkards, 179 
Hague, 41 



Hair, 6 

Haller, 85 

Hannibal, 44 

Hard drinking, 92 

Hazel-nut oil, 42 

Haemorrhage after confinement, 93 

Heads of families, 192 

Health of the ancients, 138 

Health of different nations, 140 

Heart, 44 

Hearty meal, effect of, 183 

Heliogabalus, 105 

Henry I., 44 

Herbivorous animals, 10 

Hering, 225 

Herodotus, 90 

Herschell, 48 

Hindus, 11 

Hippocrates, 13 

Hoffmann, 78 

Holman. Mr., 1 1 

Homer, 43 

Hortensius, 17. 23, 104 

Horse-flesh, 12 

Hosier, Admiral, 158 

Hospitals, 190 

Human flesh, 43, 44 

Human race degenerated, 137 

Hunger, 115 

Hyperborean nations, 38 

Iberia, 16 

Ice, 109 

Ice creams, 110 

Illinois, 16 

Income of hospitals, 19 

Indian Archipelago, 18, 29 

Indifl'erent health, 177 

Indigestion, result of, 183 

Infants, health of, 34 

Infiltration, 213 

Inoculation, 33 

Insanity, 92 

Insects, 25 

Intestinal worms, 69 

Intoxication, 91 

Iodine, 151 

Iron, 217 

Isis, 50 

Italy, 20, 36 



INDEX. 



237 



Jamaica, IS, 19 
Jardin des Plantes, 20 
Jatropha manihot, 59 
Java, 18,29 
Jelly, 8 
Jermer, Dr., 28 
Jordan, valley of the, 50 
Joseph, 114 
Juvenal, 23 

Kamtschadales, 15, 46 
Kangaroo, 16 
Kentucky, 73 
Kidnevs, calculi in, 154 
Kids. 14 

King's Arms Tavern, 19 
Kitchener, Dr., 100 
Koran, 123 
Kouskous, 24 

Labrus scarus, 23 

Lacteals, 199 

Ladies, 32, 36 

Lambs, 11 

Land of Promise, 143 

Lanx, 105 

Lapland, 47 

Laplanders, 15, 31 

Larrey, Baron, 12 

Lebanon, 50 

Le Cann, 20 

Leg of beef, 8 

Lemon, 53 

Lemon-juice, 159 

Lessaigne, 9 

Leucogaeum, 65 

Lichen moss, 72 

" Licks," salt-springs, 73 

Linnaeus, 31 

Linguet, 49 

Lion, 15 

Liqueurs, 87 

" Liqueur spirituelle," 97 

Little girl, case of, 187 

Liver, 199 

Liver, diseases of, 92 

Livy, 44 

Locusts, 26 

London, health of, 195 

London tradespeople, 196 



Louis XL, 44 
Love-apple, 108 
Lucullus, 104 
Ludlow, Mr., 28 
Lungs, tubercles in, 152 
Lyon, Captain, 84 

Macartney, Lord, 30 
Madagascar, 26 
Mahomet, 123 
Maize. 46, 50 
Magendie, 130 
Malays, 18 
Malignant fevers, 194 
Mammae, 33, 34 
Mammoth, 73 
Mandingo, 15, 18, 77 
Manganese, 218 
Manufacturers, 196 
Maranta arundinacea, 58 
Mark Antony, 104 
Marcet, 56 

Marechal d'Ancre, 44 
Massena, Marshal, 12 
Mastodon, 73 
Mazonomum, 105 
Membrane, 214 
Mental action, 172 
Messalinus, 104 
Metropolitan surgeon, 178 
Mexico, 31 
Miasma, 195 
Middle classes, 173 
Milk, 27, 30 
Milk, secretion of, 34 
Millet, 46, 50 
Minerva, shield of, 105 
Mingrelia, 16 
Mississippi, 13, 16 
Missouri, ib. 
Mixed diet, 132 
Modenese, 86 
Moles, 15 
Mongols, 12 
Monkeys, 16 
Monro, Dr., 180 
Montmorenci, 20 
Moors, 57 
Mourad II., 97 
Mucilage, 57 



238 



INDEX. 



Mucus, 9 
Mulberry-tree, 53 
Muscles, 4 
Muses, 90 
Mushroom, 9 

Nails, 6 
Napoleon, 12 
Naval officers, 39 
Needles, 212 
Negroes, 18, 26 
Nervous disorders, 92 
Newcastle, Duke of, 106 
New Holland, 15 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 171 
Noah, 88 
Normans, 15 
Northern nations, 10 
Norway, 47 
Nubia, 46 
Nun-fish, 123 
Nursing, 32, 36 
Nutmegs, 69 
Nutrition, 198 

Nutrition, how it may be regu- 
lated, 144 
Nutritive process, 224 
Nuts, 54 

Oatmeal, 47 

Oats, 49 

Odyssey. 100 

Ogston, 91 

Ohio, 73 

Oil, 42 

Oleaginous substances, 38 

Olive, 43, 68 

Opossum, 15 

Oral ik 

Orange River, 21 

Organs of digestion, 134 

Orinoco, 21 

Osmazome, 9 

Otters, 15 

Ox, 11 

Ox Balam, 123 

Oysters, 6, 7 

Palestine, 50 
Palm-oil, 42 



Palm-tree, 26 

Palo-da-vacca, 31 

Papaw-tree, 6 

Paradise, 124 

Paris, populace of, 44 

Paris, Dr., 12, 20, S2 

Parish, Sir Woodbine, 230 

Parks, 195 

Parrot-fish, 22 

Particular kinds of diet, 143 

Patagonians, 12 

Peacocks, 17 

Peach, 52 

Pea-hen, 18 

Pears, 145 

Pediculus humanus, 26 

Pekin, 30 

Pepper, 69 

Periwinkles, 6, 

Peru, 15, 43 

Pheasants, 16 

Philanthropists, 190 

Phoenicians, 43, 88 

Phosphorus, 218 

Physicians, 45 

Pies, 162 

Pimento, 69 

Pine-apple, 53 

Pine-trees, 47 

Pistachio- nut, 55 

Pith, 46 

Plague at Athens, 117 

Pliny, 13. 102 

Plover, 18 

Plums, 145 

Polar seas, 15 

Political appointments, 172 

Pompeii, 113 

Pope's eyes, 106 

Poplar, 18 

Pork. 12, 13, 43 

Porpoise, 22 

Potato, 60, 116 

Prawns, 116 

i \c(l meat, 1 11 

Prevention of disease, 189 

Priam, 100 

Prochaska, 45 

Prophylactics, 193 

Protococcus nivalis, 229 



INDEX. 



239 



Prout, Dr., 27, 221 
Psoas abscess, 211 
Psora, 163 
Ptolemies, 16 
Puddings, 162 

Queen bee, 150 
Quinces, 52 

Race-horses, 175 
Rail-roads, 197 
Rana esculenta, 20 
Rats, 15 

Rattle-snakes, 20 
Rein-deer, 31 
Reptiles, 18 
Respiration, 225 
Retzius, Professor, 66 
Rheumatism, 39 
Rhubarb, 151 
Ribera, Antonio de, 43 
Ribs, fracture of, 209 
Rice, 46, 49, 145 
Rio Negro, 26 
Roasted pork, 1 85 
Robust persons, 186 
Rock salt, 73 
Rollo, Dr., 153 
Romans, 12, 14, 17, 41 
Rose, 146 
Roots, 46 
Ross, Sir J., Ill 
Rum, 87 

Ruminants, 11, 30 
Rye, 46, 49, 145 

Sago, 58 
Sale, 123 
Saliva, 9 
Salop, 58 
Samoieds, 15 
Sap, 46 
Salt, Mr., 17 
Salt, 72 
Salt-junk, 178 
Salt-mines, 73 
Sarzeau, M., 219 
Savage nations, 36 
Savoury, 9 
Saw-dust, 48, 109 



Scald head, 163 

Schiller, 44 

Schenk, 45 

Schools for carving, 103 

Scots, 43 

Scurvy, 157 

Scylla, 43 

Scythians, 41 

Sea-gulls, 18 

Seals, 15 

Seeds, 46 

Seed-vessels, 46 

Selkirk, Alexander, 77 

Senegal, 24 

Serpents, 19 

Serum, 203 

Sestrygon, 43 

Sewers, 195 

Sheep, 11 

Sheep, tail of, 40 

Shrimps, 115 

Siberia, 46, 49 

Sloe, 145 

Sluggish bowels, 42 

Small-pox, 33, 193 

Smoke, 196 

Snails, 6, 26 

Snow, 109 

Soap, 39 

Solander, Dr., 13 

Solon, 52 

Sonnini, 16 

Soups, 83 

South of Africa, 14, 26, 40 

South America, 15 

South Sea Islanders, 132 

Sow's liver, 121 

So wans, 58 

Spanish Jesuits, 16 

Sphynx moth, 26 

Spices, 68 

Spirits, 86 

Stalks, 46 

Starch, 57 

Stark, Dr., 129 

Staunton, Sir George, 30 

Steam-boats, 19, 197 

Stoics, 43 

Stone in the bladder, 92 

Streets, 195 



240 



INDEX. 



Subclavian vein, 199 
Suckling, 33 
Suetonius. 23 
Sugar. 60 
Sulphur, 151, 218 
Sun da, 18 
Swallows' nests, 1 8 
Sweden, 12. 49 
Sylla, 101 
Syracuse, sot of, 85 
Syrens, 43 
Syrians. 22, 26 

Tallow, 39 

Tamarinds, 53 

Tansira, water of, 125 

Tapioca, 59 

Tapir. 15 

Tartars, 12 

Taste, 113 

Tchuktchi, 84 

Tea, 94 

Teetotalers, 93 

Temperate regions, 41 

Thirst, 83 

Thracians, 41 

Tiberius, 101 

Tiedemann and Gmelin, 130 

Tissues. 200, 206 

Toads, 20 

Toasts, 89 

Tobacco. 68 

Tongooses, 12 

Tonkin, 121 

Trail of woodcock, 120 

Training, 174 

Train-oil, 42 

Trajan, 101 

Trimalcion, 104 

Triticum, 46 

Trojan hone, 102 

Tropical regions, 41 

Trypherus, 103 

Tubers. 46 
Tubingen, 48 
Turbot, 23 
Turkey, 16 



Turpentine, 151 

Turtle, green fat of, 8, 18 

United States, 46 

Urine, 35 

Uterus of sheep, 1 1 

Vaccination, 193 
Van Diemen's Land, 26 
Van Helmont, 227 
Vanilla, 69 
Vauquelin, 6, 9 
Veal, 43 

Vedius Pollio, 23 

Vegetable food, proximate prin- 
ciples of, 55 
Vegetable food, effects of, 129 
Vegetable oil, 41 
Vegetables taken as food, 46 
Venom, 216 
Ventenat, 228 
Vincennes, Bois de, 20 
Vine, 52, 88 
Vital principle, 196 
Vitellius, 104 
Vultures, 115 

Walnuts, 42, 54 
Walruses, 15 
Water, 77 
Water-ices, 110 
Water-plants, 78 
Watt, 100 
Weak stomach, 161 
West Bothnia, 31 
West Indies, 16, 19 
Whale, milk of, 28 
Whale-oil, 42 
Whales, 15 
Whampoa, 15 
Wheat, 16, 141 
Whelks, 6 
White ant, 26 
Wild briar, 146 
Willow, 227 
Wine, 88 

Women, Roman, 89 
Worms, inteslinal, 76 



London : Printed by Wii.mam Ci.owks and Sons, Stamford Street. 



3U77-2 




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